


Angel In Blue

by LucindaAM



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Ghost Powers, Light Swearing, Mostly Canon Compliant, No Smut, Starts with Avengers, Suspense, Will end with endgame, With a few necessary changes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:21:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 36
Words: 63,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27748177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LucindaAM/pseuds/LucindaAM
Summary: The day that Loki attacked New York, Tony Stark died.This is the story of how he met his saving grace.His Angel in Blue.Updates at least once a week. Usually more (since I have no self control). XD
Relationships: Tony Stark/Reader
Comments: 302
Kudos: 158





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mrsxfredweasley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mrsxfredweasley/gifts).



> I'm VERY excited for what's to come. Hope you are too!
> 
> Special thanks to Mrsxfredweasley for the inspiration for this!

You huddled in a ball, hands braced against the back of your neck as bits of building and alien rained down on you. You waited until the pelting sensation stopped before you glanced around, saw the coast was clear and immediately took off running again. You didn’t stop to think about those you’d left behind. You didn't give yourself a minute to grieve for the dead you’d seen on your way, you just forced one foot in front of the other as you silently fled with the rest of the city as far from the wormhole as you could get. 

In the distance, you could see the red and blue flashing lights of the cop cars, keeping anyone else from entering the danger zone. You glued your eyes to them and pushed yourself even harder as you ran for your life. 

You were almost there when you felt something catch the back of your shirt and start pulling you back towards the hell you’d just escaped. You cried out and scrambled ahead of you for anything to grab ahold of, but there was nothing in reach. You were helpless as the bony fingers curled around you and pulled. 

“Let go of me! Let go!” You ordered, squirming away as dozens of more hands reached out and grabbed at you. You struggled in vain as you were lifted in the air and bodily carried back to the heart of things. You watched in horrified fascination as you were carried past the destroyed remains of New York as a single group of six people fought to save your world. You watched as a missile was shot out of nowhere, Iron Man guiding it through the city and up through the wormhole. 

You watched as an explosion ripped through the wormhole and Iron Man himself fell out of the hole, out of control. You watched as a green beast shot out of nowhere and intercepted Iron Man halfway to the ground. You watched Hulk lay Iron Man on the ground and his teammates circle around their fallen comrade.

Then, you were dumped on your ass and time seemed to freeze as it always did when a life destined for so much more seemed to hover on the edge of this world and the next. 

You glanced up at the faces of the dead who had dragged you kicking and screaming to this moment and then you looked at the frozen body of Tony Stark. 

You felt the dead crowd behind you, each placing a hand on your back as they helped funnel power into you and then you reached over and placed a hand against Tony Stark’s mask. The helmet melted away until your hand was cradling his face and you leaned forward, doing what you’d been summoned here to do. 

You breathed LIFE back into him. 

Tony jolted awake, his eyes wide with fear as he took everything in. The sun shown around you, haloing you in golden light as you smiled down at him and stroked the side of his face with your thumb. “You’ll be alright.” You murmured. “Just breathe.” 

“Am . . . am I dead?” He asked, taking everything in with a scientist’s eye. 

You threw your head back and laughed for the first time all day. “Not yet. You have too much left to do.” 

“But you’re an angel.” 

You smiled down at him in amusement. “Not quite.” You murmured. 

You could feel the spirits pulling on your clothes again, and you could feel your own body shutting down and knew you couldn’t stay though there was a part of you that wished you could. 

You always had a connection to those you brought back. But there was something about Tony Stark that made you feel like you’d given even more of yourself to him than you ever had before. You wanted to stay. You wanted to make sure he was truly okay. 

“Be well, Tony Stark.” You leaned down and kissed his forehead before you let the dead lead you away. 

Tony closed his eyes and in the next second, a furious ROAR ripped through the air. Tony’s eyes flew open and he scrambled in his panic. Hulk and Captain America stood next to him, looking like he’d just come back from the dead. 

He glanced around the street, but there wasn’t any sign of the woman who’d just brought him back to life. 

He swallowed hard and tried to rejoice in a job well done with the team but he couldn’t get his mind off of his angel in blue. 


	2. The Need to Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're going to be switching back and forth between Tony and Reader's POV a lot moving forward.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

I walked into the lab; shoulders slumped after a long day. Pepp and I had finally called it quits earlier and I couldn’t say I blamed her. I sat, hard, in my chair and rubbed at my eyes. I guess my almost dying a second time around would have been too much for anyone. 

A part of me was in denial. Pepp had been the best thing that had ever happened to me. I knew that. Or I thought I’d known that. Now . . . now I wasn’t so sure. 

I glanced over at the Iron Man armor I’d been wearing when I’d flown the nuke straight through the wormhole. I pushed to my feet and wandered over to it, glancing at the chipped paint and cracked plates. Everything had the same kind of wear and tear except for one thing. 

The face plate. 

I picked it up and studied the melted surface. It was the only physical sign that my angel in blue had been real. I traced the strange pattern left in the warped metal. If I held my hand just right, I could almost make out the shape of a hand in the design. The same hand I could still feel stroking the side of my face. 

When I closed my eyes, I could still see her smile. I could still feel her lips on my head. There was something deep inside of me that was pulling me towards her and suddenly Pepper leaving didn’t claw at me like I always thought it would. “JARVIS.” 

“Sir?” 

“Were you recording?” 

“Of course.” 

“Pull up the end of the battle will you?” 

JARVIS pulled up footage from the suit as I intercepted the nuke headed for New York. My heart jumped through my chest and my hands suddenly felt clammy. “Fast forward. Fast forward all of that.” I grit out. 

“What am I looking for, sir?” JARVIS asked, rolling quickly through the wormhole footage. I had to close my eyes. It wasn’t like the sight wasn’t already permanently embedded in my head. I would never be able to forget what I’d seen there. 

“After that, J. After I . . . fell.” 

My jaw ticked as I waited for JARVIS to give the all clear. I could feel a familiar sense of panic clawing at my chest and I tried to focus on her instead. 

“Would you like me to play it?” JARVIS asked. 

I looked up to see my point of view frozen on screen. “Yeah, J. Go ahead.” 

The footage began and I watched as Hulk dropped me on the street. I winced in sympathy and rubbed at the bruises I was still nursing from that. A few seconds passed and Cap’ looked like he’d just seen someone die. Hulk roared and the camera jumped, before I started talking about shawarma. “No. No, there’s something missing. Back it up, JARVIS and slow down the replay.” 

JARVIS backed up the footage and played it back much slower. There was still no sign of that strange woman. 

“Even slower, J.” 

“Perhaps it would help if I knew exactly what you were thinking, sir.” 

I shook my head and reached for the image, pulling it apart shot for shot, looking for the anomaly. If I didn’t have that damn face plate, I would have assumed I’d lost my damned mind. But she HAD to exist. She HAD to. 

“There was a moment while I was lying there . . . just a moment, mind you . . . there was a woman. I swear she brought me back.” 

“There’s no woman in the footage.” 

“No.” I concentrated, picking everything apart. “There’s not.” 

My eyebrows drew together as I isolated something in the footage. “What’s this, J?” I asked, throwing up the shot. 

There was a flicker of something that almost looked like interference except . . . except it was blue. 

“Something appeared, but too quickly to be fully captured on camera.” 

I sat back hard in my chair and ran a hand over my mouth. “She was there.” I murmured, looking at the sliver of a picture. 

My brain scrambled as I tried to figure it out. She had been there. We’d had an entire conversation. It had to have been at least two minutes. But it showed up in less than a second of footage? Had she wiped it? 

“Is there footage missing?” 

“According to the timestamp, it’s a continuous feed.” 

So that ruled that out. 

“What are we thinking, J?” 

“Perhaps she was an enhanced?” 

“You’re thinking she was a speedster? No. That doesn’t make sense. She spoke to me and . . . I felt something.” 

JARVIS hummed in disapproval. “Perhaps you ought to be examined by Doctor Banner.” 

I scoffed. “You think she drugged me?” 

“It wouldn’t hurt to check.” 

I ran a hand down my face. A . . . _thing_ . . . was tugging in my chest again and I didn’t know how but I was sure she hadn’t. There was something else. There had to be something else. Though maybe it wouldn’t hurt to check. I wouldn’t hold out hope but maybe Banner could pinpoint what was tugging on my heart. 

“Fine, J. If it’ll make you feel better.” 

“Thank you, sir. Your concern, as always, is appreciated.” 

I smirked before I wandered to the glass door separating my workspace from the one I’d set Bruce up in. Bruce looked up as I walked in. “You have a minute?” I asked. 

He nodded and set down his equipment. “What’s up?” 

“I was hoping you could give me a checkup. No big deal.” 

Bruce squinted at me as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Not sure if you remember this, but, I’m not that kind of doctor.” 

“Oh come on, big guy. Help a brother out.” 

Bruce sighed. “Why do you need one?” He asked. “Didn’t you get one after . . .” 

I cut him off. “Yeah. And they said everything was fine. I was wondering if you could do a little more . . . digging.” 

Bruce glanced up sharply at that. “Is there something specific I’d be looking for?” 

I shook my head. I wasn’t ready to explain my angel in blue yet. Not until I had more to go on. What was I even supposed to say? I think I played the role of sleeping beauty in a damn fairy tale and a woman kissed me back to life? Oh, but she might not have existed at all. Except, my helmet says otherwise. But don’t worry. She might have just permanently done something to my soul. No big deal. 

“I can do it myself . . .” I started. 

Bruce shook his head. “No. I can.” 

I smirked as he fiddled with his equipment in that nervous way of his. “JARVIS? Can you run a few scans?” 

“Right away.” 

Bruce turned to a table and grabbed some more equipment. “I’m going to draw some blood. Do you mind?” 

I shook my head and rolled up my sleeve. “Grab what you need. How fast can you get the results back?” 

“With your equipment here, it should be just a few minutes.” 

We both fell silent as he gathered the blood he needed and took it over to his machine. I tapped out a random rhythm on my knees as I waited for the results. There was a nervous energy thrumming through me. Something told me that whatever the results were, my life would never be the same. 

Bruce cleared his throat and I turned to him. “So? Everything’s kosher, right?” 

Bruce shook his head slowly as he scanned through the results. “I . . . I’ve never seen anything like this.” He said. 

I pushed to my feet and moved towards him so I could read over his shoulder. 

“Tony, according to this, most of your cells are dead. According to this, YOU should be dead. You shouldn’t even be standing right now.” 

We made eye contact. “What the hell happened to you out there?” He asked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Prophecies?


	3. Searching for Her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

I shook my head and tried to deflect. “I fell outta the sky. You were there. Well, the other guy was at least.” 

Bruce glanced back over the readings; his brow furrowed. “Tony . . .” 

I didn’t like that tone of voice. “This was probably a mistake. I only asked in the first place because JARVIS can be such a worrywart. I have NO idea where he gets that from.” 

“Tony.” 

I sighed, my head bowing forward. 

“It’s fine.” I said shortly. “I’m here, aren’t I?” 

“Are you?” 

I winced internally. 

“Tony . . . this isn’t medically possible. But moving past that . . . this can’t be healthy.” 

My gut was screaming at me that things weren’t as bad as they seemed. I’d been brought back from the dead. The literal dead. There couldn’t possibly be anything sinister in that. Could there? 

“There was a woman.” I blurted out. 

Bruce looked taken aback. “A . . . woman?” He asked. 

I nodded and pulled up a seat, gesturing for him to take one too. Bruce looked nervous as he slid into his seat and glanced at me. I leaned forward, bracing my elbows on my knees as I struggled to explain what had happened without sounding insane. 

“Right after the big guy grabbed me out of the sky, there was a woman. She was . . .” I breathed out a sigh and ran a hand through my hair. “She was something else.” 

“And . . . this woman . . . what did she do?” 

“She brought me back.” 

I could see Bruce’s look of disbelief and I rushed to correct him. “I’m serious, Banner. For a second there . . . I saw a light. I heard the angels. My life had already flashed before my eyes. Whatever troupe you want to believe in. I was gone. The next thing I know, I’m looking up at the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. She brought me back.” I grabbed the test results off the table and shook the tablet at him. “This? This just proves it!” 

Banner slumped in his chair. “Tony . . . This goes against YEARS of scientific research.” 

“So does THIS.” I shook the tablet again. “But I have more. J?” 

The image I’d isolated in my lab appeared in front of me and I pushed off the ground, rolling my stool until I was next to Bruce. I gestured up at the pixels, which, granted, didn’t look like much. “I have physical proof.” 

Bruce ran a tired hand over his face. “Tony.” He started. 

I cut him off. “Before you say anything; I spoke with her. The conversation had to have lasted a few minutes but this? On screen? Less than a second.” 

Bruce pushed up from his chair and started pacing around. “This is insane. You realize that, right?” He asked, spinning back to face me again. 

I nodded, turning my attention back to the flash of color that had to be my Angel in Blue. “I know. But I’m telling you Banner. Something happened out there.” 

Bruce let out a deep sigh. “So what are you going to do?” 

I turned back to him. “I’m going to find her.” 

Bruce scoffed. “And then what?” 

I shrugged and turned back to the pixels. “Cross that bridge when I get to it.” 

(One month later) 

I walked into the lab back home and clapped my hands. “Daddy’s home.” I called out. The lights around me flickered on as everything started coming to life. I moved towards my desk and swiped a hand across the built in screen. “What’s on the docket for today, JARVIS?” 

“Ms. Potts is requesting your presence in the annual board meeting being held tonight.” 

I shook my head and started flicking through blueprints, looking for the one I’d had an epiphany for last night. “Hope she’s not holding out too much hope. I put her in control of the company for a reason and we’re not together. She can’t use that to guilt me into those meetings anymore.” 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the email from Pepper disappear from my inbox and I hoped JARVIS had trashed it. Pepper didn’t need me around to run the company and I didn’t need to be around her or the men sniffing around her. Besides I had things here to focus on. 

It had been a month since New York and there was still no trace on my mystery woman. Speaking of . . . 

“How’s the search going? I’m feeling lucky today.” 

“Then you’ll be disappointed. I’ll ask again, sir, but are you certain this is the same woman you saw?” 

A computer-generated image of her face appeared on the screen. I took a deep breath and sat heavily in my desk chair as I stared at the face I still dreamed about. “Yeah, J. I’m sure.” 

The image faded from view and I stared at my hands for a moment. 

“She hasn’t been picked up on any surveillance cameras.” 

“You’ve checked the top secret ones we shouldn’t know about?” I asked. 

JARVIS hummed. 

I let out a deep breath and scrolled through the search parameters in the computer. It wasn’t necessarily impossible to avoid cameras. But it sure as HELL was improbable. 

I rubbed at my chest where my heart beat behind the arc reactor. That . . .  _ thing _ . . . had stopped trying to tug itself out of my chest but I could still feel it there. It was slowly becoming a part of me. A  _ thing  _ that I cherished. In the sleepless nights that had followed me and in the aftermath of the nightmares I couldn’t shake, that  _ thing _ glowed and for maybe the first time in my life, I didn’t feel alone. 

I HAD to find her. 

I HAD to know who she was. 

I HAD to thank her. 

I sighed and turned back to my blueprints, pulling up the latest Iron Man suit design. “Keep looking, J.” I murmured. 

He sighed. “Yes, sir.” 

I started tweaking the design and let my Angel in Blue slip to the backburner as I worked on my Iron Legion. 

I would find her eventually. And once I did, I’d protect the both of us. 

(Three months later) 

I took another swig of coffee and flicked my wrist, sending the volume on even higher on my music. I torqued another plate into place on the latest suit and forced my eyes to stay open. The nightmares were getting worse. If I wanted to see a horror movie, I’d go to the movies. Besides, I had work to do. This latest suit was almost done, and I had an idea for a watertight one that I wanted to get started on. 

The music paused and JARVIS’ voice interrupted. 

“Ms. Potts . . .” 

“Can take care of it herself.” I grit out, tossing the wrench aside as I reached inside to examine the wiring. 

“She’s worried . . .” 

“Tell her not to.” 

“Sir.” 

“Turn the music back up, JARVIS.” 

JARVIS sighed, but did as requested. 

I glanced at the screen out of the corner of my eye. Day 94 and still no sign of my Angel in Blue. 

Maybe I really was losing my damn mind. 

(Six months later) 

I didn’t think about it as I flew under the nuke and grabbed at it. 

“I can close it!” Widow said. “Can anybody read me? I can shut the portal down!” 

“Do it!” Cap’ cried. 

My heart pounded in my chest as my very few options flashed before my eyes. “No wait!” 

“Stark! These things are still coming!” Cap’ called. 

“I know! But I got a nuke coming in and I know just where to put it.” I murmured. 

“That’s a one-way trip, Stark.” Cap’ said. 

I swallowed hard. “Save the rest for the turn, J.” 

Pepper’s face flashed on my screen. “Sir. Shall I call Miss Potts?” 

I hesitated a moment. “Might as well.” 

The phone rang and rang as I shot towards the wormhole where thousands of aliens were still pouring into our world. I wasn’t an idiot; I’d crunched the numbers better than Cap’ ever could have. But it would be okay. This could be my legacy. I was at peace with it. 

I shot through the portal watched as the nuke soared true and blew up in the heart of space destroying everything in its wake. I saw the bodies. The manpower. The sheer NUMBER of troops out there, and I realized things would never be the same. 

Then, my eyes closed and I fell through the wormhole and back to my world. 

"You can’t leave yet.” 

My eyes snapped open. I glanced around, confused at the appearance of a sudden meadow. A breeze rolled through the grass, making it rustle under my hands. 

“You’re not done yet, Tony Stark.” 

I turned to my right and there she was, my Angel in Blue. 

She leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine in a featherlight kiss. “Tony, wake up. It’s just a dream. Tony . . . come back to me.”

I jolted upright in bed, breathing heavily. An alarm was sounding in the background and I waved my hand weakly as I took a minute to reorient myself. “What’s wrong, J?” I asked wearily, running my hands over my face. 

“It’s the search alert, sir. I’ve found her.” 

My heart skipped a beat. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Prophecies? 
> 
> Things are starting to get goooood. Stay tuned!


	4. The First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

I kept huddled in the back booth of the dinner. I slowly spun the mug of coffee in my hands as I let my mind wander. I was waiting for something. I knew that much. I just didn’t know what it was. 

I sighed and took a sip of coffee, keeping my eyes pinned to the window. 

It had been only a month since I’d woken up. That was the longest I’d ever been benched since I’d first come into my powers. My brow furrowed and I took another sip of coffee as I tried to think about what that could mean. What had made Tony Stark different from the hundreds of people I’d helped in the past? And why did I feel like I’d just altered the course of human history because of it? 

I snaked a hand out and rubbed at my chest over my sweater where it felt like a part of me was missing. I needed to figure out what was going on. 

If only the dead would be more helpful. 

I was so lost in my thoughts that I almost didn’t hear the hush that fell over the diner as the bell over the door jingled. A murmur broke through the crowd, as I kept my eyes pined to the window but I tensed as an echoed name broke through my mental haze. 

“Is that, TONY STARK?” 

My hands fell from my mug and reached out to grip the table in a death grip so hard, my knuckles turned white. My eyes shot up to see the spirits who had led me here nodding to themselves as they looked over my shoulder. My heart took off at a gallop as I heard footsteps drawing closer to my booth and suddenly, I wished I hadn’t woken up at all. 

I had less than a second to prepare myself mentally before a man in a well-tailored suit stopped in front of my booth and stretched out a hand to point at the empty bench in front of me. Well, empty except for a few of the dead who scrambled to get out of his way. 

“Is this seat taken?” 

I shot a look to the dead out of the corner of my eye who watched me pointedly before I swallowed hard and shook my head. “No. Go ahead.” 

Tony Stark unbuttoned his suit coat in one fluid motion as he slid into the seat in front of me. I watched him in stunned silence, without ever once making eye contact with him as he reached over to pull a sticky laminated menu from the napkin holder. Within seconds, a frazzled, perky, far too nervous for her own good, waitress appeared out of nowhere. “What can I get for you?” 

Tony Stark glanced over the menu and pointed at it carefully. “Can I get a few burgers? And a coffee and . . .” He turned to me. “Do you want anything?” 

I shook my head, my fingers curling even harder around the table which I hadn’t stopped gripping. I saw him eyeing my fingers carefully before he turned his attention back to the waitress. “And an apple pie, if you have it.” 

“We sure do, hun. I’ll get all of that out as soon as possible.” 

He sent the waitress a million-dollar smile that she seemed to swoon over before she turned on her heel and sped away. 

I had half a mind to follow her but one glance to the side of the booth where the spirits still stood guard told me I wouldn't like the consequences if I tried. I’d been brought here because of HIM. They wouldn’t let me go until their purposes had been met. 

“So.” Tony Stark started. 

“So.” I echoed, forcibly removing my hands from the table as I stiffly reached for my mug again. 

“This is a nice place . . .” 

“You want to know what I did to you.” I interrupted, my anxiety spiking through the roof. 

One of the dead, a woman who looked like she’d lived and breathed etiquette during her life positively glared at my lack of manners, but I ignored her. For the first time since he arrived, I glanced up and made eye contact with Iron Man himself. 

He swallowed hard. “A ‘cut to the chase’ kind of woman, huh? I can respect that.” He smiled, but there was something tense in his expression. He reached up to tug at his tie and I suddenly got the distinct impression that he wasn’t there to hurt me. A weight felt like it was lifted from my shoulders and I relaxed infinitesimally. 

“I’m sorry.” I murmured, ducking my head as I tried to sort through my feelings. It had only been a month since I’d woken up and I was struggling to adjust to the complicated and wide range of feelings to be had again. For some reason, everything was feeling so much brighter and more intense than usual as well. I glanced discreetly at the dead and quirked an eyebrow. One of the ghosts raised a bony finger to point at Mr. Stark before he pointed at me and rubbed his chest. My breath caught in my throat as my hand flew to my chest and I realized that my missing piece didn't feel quite so missing. 

My eyes shot back to Mr. Stark’s face as he eyed me curiously. “Are you okay?” He asked. 

I licked my lips and moved my hand away from my chest. “Yes. Yes, of course. I’m sorry. Where are my manners?” I had to test this. I reached a hand out and offered it to him. “I’m Y/N.” 

Tony stared at my hand for just a second before a small smile broke out on his face. He reached out and grabbed my hand, shaking it firmly in his. Or at least, he tried to. The second our skin made contact, a jolt shot through both of us and I yanked my hand away as I gasped for breath. 

My missing piece. 

He had it. 

I swallowed hard. 

So that’s what I’d done. 

Shit.

“What . . . what the hell?” Tony was staring at me with one hand pressed tightly against his chest. 

“Please don’t freak out.” I urged, leaning forward. “I’m not going to hurt you.” 

Tony stared at me for a long minute before something in his expression softened. “I never thought you would.” He said softly, sending me a smile that could have melted butter. I squirmed under his gaze, knowing he wouldn’t quite feel the same way if he knew what I’d done and he deserved to know. 

I swallowed hard. “Can . . . can we go somewhere private?” I asked. “I’ll tell you everything. I promise.” 

He smiled at me. “I’d go anywhere with you, honey.” 

‘Anywhere’ turned out to be a park a few blocks away from the diner. Once Tony had asked for the waitress to box up his food to go, he settled the bill, insisting on paying for my coffee, before he led me outside to a sportscar he had waiting. “Do you have a car?” 

I shook my head. “No. I walked.” 

“Then hop in. There’s a park just down the street.” 

I slipped into the car and tried to ignore the way my soul sang at having all its pieces together again. Tony slid into the other side of the car and handed me the boxes of food to balance on my lap as he started the car and shifted into drive. The two of us rode in silence until he pulled to a stop just outside the park. He pointed to a set of benches under the shade of a couple of trees. “Are you okay sitting over there? We can go somewhere else if you prefer.” 

I rubbed at my chest. I could hear the nerves in his voice and knew without asking that he was just as terrified as I was though I had a feeling our fears were based on very different things. I glanced out the windshield and saw the dead beckoning forward and I shook my head. “This is perfect.” 

Tony cleared his throat and sent me a picture-perfect smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Great. Let's go. I’m starving.” 

He slid out of the car before he reached back in to take his boxes from me. Once they were out of my hands, I slid out after him. 

My hands clenched and unclenched at my sides as I followed him across the grass towards the benches. I sat down on the edge of the seat as Tony settled in next to me and opened his first box. He pulled out the burger and dug in, staring out at the scenic view for a minute before he spoke again. 

“You don’t have to be so nervous.” He said softly, keeping his eyes focused out over the view as he took another bite of his food. “I’m not going to hurt you.” 

I chuckled. “I’ll relax when you do.” I murmured. 

Tony froze for a second before he turned to me more fully. I could see the question brewing in his eyes but there was only so much I could handle so I quickly changed the subject. “I promised you that I would tell you everything.” 

Tony nodded slowly, setting his burger back in its box. 

I swallowed hard and started down at my hands. “How much do you already know?” 

Tony was silent for a minute as he thought about it. “I know that I saw you. I know that you told me it wasn’t my time. I assume you did something.” 

I nodded slowly. “I brought you back to life.” I whispered. 

A tense silence followed that statement. 

Tony sucked in a ragged breath. “So, I DID die.” He murmured. 

I shook my head slowly. “You had one foot in both worlds . . . but . . . yes. For lack of a better phrase, you were . . . dead.” 

Tony nodded and turned his attention back to the park. I fell into silence, fiddling with my thumbs as I waited for him to process that however he needed to. 

I could almost feel it when he finally made peace with it. 

“Why’d you save me?” He asked, in a quiet whisper. 

I shrugged. “I was told to.” 

“By who?” 

“The dead.” 

Tony’s head whipped towards me and it was my turn to keep my gaze glued ahead as he took my measure. I didn’t need to see the look that would be in his eyes then. I’d seen it often enough in everyone else’s. I knew I wasn’t crazy and with no way to prove it to anyone else, that had to be enough. 

“What do the dead want with me?” 

I couldn’t help the strangled chuckle that escaped me then as my own head whipped towards him. He wasn’t . . . he wasn’t judging me. 

Tony seemed to pick up on my feelings because he shook his head carefully. “I’ve lived a crazy life, honey. Your gift is small potatoes in comparison.” 

My breath caught in my throat. That was the first time anyone had referred to my powers as anything other than a curse. A warmth snaked across my chest and I had to resist the urge to rub against it again. Instead, tears welled in my eyes and I ducked my head so he couldn’t see them. 

“So? The dead? What do they want with me?” Tony prompted. 

I shrugged my shoulders and cleared my throat. “The dead have always been able to see the bigger picture. It wasn’t your time yet, Mr. Stark.” 

Tony shook his head. “Please. Call me Tony.” 

I smiled at him softly. 

Something warmed in his eyes and he turned his attention back to his food. 

“So. You showed up, brought me back to life, and then what?” 

I froze. I had to tell him. Right? 

I glanced to my right and eyed the ghosts milling about beside us. A few made impatient shooing motions and I swallowed before I turned my attention back to my hands, tensing my legs, ready to bolt at a moment’s notice. 

“Usually, the dead bring the dying back to life. I’m just the bridge between. But you . . . you Mr . . . Tony . . . you were too far gone.” 

“What does that mean?” He asked, taking another nonchalant bite of burger, completely unaware of the bomb I was about to drop on him. 

“To bring you back to life I had to give you something you’d lost.” 

Tony snorted. “Well it sounds like I’d lost my life and you gave that back. Thanks, by the way. Not sure what the problem is.” 

I shook my head. “You’d lost your soul.” I murmured. “So I gave you part of mine.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well now I GOTTA know what you're thinking! XD


	5. Soulmates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suuuuuuper short chapter. But tomorrow's update will make up for it! Promise!

Tony choked on his food. I glanced at him nervously. 

He fumbled for a napkin and wiped at his face before he turned to me again. “You gave me your soul.” 

“Part of it, yes.” 

“And you did it on purpose.” 

“No.” 

“What does that mean?” 

I sighed. “I didn’t mean to do it. You have to believe me. It just kind of . . . happened.” 

Tony stared at me for a long minute. One of his hands snaked up and rubbed at his chest where the glow from his infamous arc reactor was clearly visible. “That’s what I’ve been feeling for the past six months, isn’t it?” 

I nodded miserably. 

“Can you . . . do you want it back?” 

I glanced up in surprise at the wording of the question. “Do . . . do you want to keep it?” I asked softly. 

Tony rubbed at his chest; his head bent as he pondered the question. I could feel him building his walls up, concocting the lie that he thought I wanted to hear but at the last possible second, he let all of it go. He sighed and shook his head. “Yes.” He said softly. 

I licked my lips and willed myself to be as brave as he had been. I slid across the bench and reached a trembling hand out to lay against his chest. “Then it’s yours.” I said softly. 

Tony reached out and wrapped his own hand around mine, keeping it pinned to his chest. For a long moment, the two of us sat in silence, lost in our own thoughts and the feelings that were swelling within us. 

Then, a child screamed, and a bird cawed and I remembered myself. 

I pulled away and pushed back down the bench to my original seat. Tony stared after me longingly, but I refused to make eye contact. 

“I don’t think I can take it back now anyway.” I said, shrugging a shoulder. “It’s bonded to yours.” 

“How can you tell?” 

This. This was the part that I was most afraid to tell him. “I can . . . feel you.” I admitted. 

Tony seemed to sense my nerves because he quirked a brow and winked at me. “Kinky.” He murmured. 

I chuckled softly. 

“Feel me how?” He pressed gently. 

“You’re feeling overwhelmed. I think by all of this. But there’s something else there too . . .” I cocked my head and closed my eyes and tried to pinpoint it. “Relief, maybe?” 

Tony glanced at me nervously and cleared his throat. “Will it hurt you? Your soul being split in two, I mean.” 

I opened my eyes and shook my head. 

“But there’s more to it, isn’t there?” 

I glanced at him and smoothed my pants down as I let out a shaking breath. I nodded. 

“What is it?” He whispered, reaching out to take one of my hands in his. He squeezed it gently. “You can tell me.” 

I shuffled closer, needing to be closer to the part of myself I would never get back and couldn’t help myself as I stretched out my free hand and set it against his chest once more. “You own a piece of my soul, Tony Stark. You could say that you’re my soulmate. Even if I’ll never be yours.” 

Tony glanced at me with something I couldn’t quite read brewing in his eyes. “Soulmates don’t exist, honey.” He whispered, reaching a hand up to brush a finger down my cheek. 

I shook my head. “They’re not supposed to.” I agreed. “But you own a piece of my soul all the same and I already told you, I don’t want it back.” 

Tony’s eyes flicked to my lips and then back to my eyes. “I think you’re wrong.” He said, leaning closer. 

My heart was beating wildly in my chest as my soul sang. “Oh?” I asked leaning towards him too. 

Tony nodded, his nose brushing against mine as he moved. “I could swear that you own a piece of my soul too.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooh. He owns a piece of readers soul! *Melts*


	6. Together Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

“Where do you live?” Tony asked, tossing his takeout boxes in the trash as we slowly sauntered back towards his car. 

“I . . . uh . . .” 

Tony chuckled. “Don’t tell me you’ve been couch-surfing.” 

I swallowed hard and bit back the words that were on the tip of my tongue. ‘If couch surfing means crypt dwelling.’ Something told me it was probably better if he DIDN’T know how bringing the dead back to life knocked me into a coma for months at a time or how the dead were responsible for me in the meantime. They had a very different idea of ‘accommodations’ from beyond the grave. 

“I’m fine.” I said instead. 

Tony shook his head and reached for my hand, pulling me to a stop in the middle of the park. “I’d feel better if you had a real home.” 

I shrugged my shoulder and smiled at him. “I’ll figure something out. I always do.” 

Tony grit his teeth and stared off into the distance for a long minute, clearly weighing a decision out in his head. Finally, he turned back to me and let out a slow breath. 

“I’ve led a very public life.” He started, with a nervous tone of voice. 

I nodded in confusion. 

“I just don’t want you to think I’m overstepping or anything.” 

“Can you really overstep more than accidentally giving part of your soul to someone?” 

Tony smirked at that and pointed a finger at me. “Good point, honey.” He took a step closer and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me close to his chest as something heated in his eyes. “Although I thought we agreed that we liked how that turned out.” 

I licked my lips, my eyes drifting to his. 

“You . . . you were saying?” I asked. 

Tony’s lips curled into a smirk that said he knew exactly what I was doing but he let me push away from him anyway. 

“Move in with me.” He said. 

“What?!” I asked in shock. 

“Move in with me.” He echoed, stepping closer. 

“You . . . you don’t even know me.” I took a step back. 

“Don’t I?” He asked, rubbing at his chest. 

“Tony . . .” 

Tony shook his head. “I know it sounds crazy but everything in me is screaming to keep you close. Please. Just . . . come home with me. You can decide to move in later, if you’d like. I . . . I just want to know that you’re safe.” 

That melting feeling snuck over my chest again and I knew what my answer was going to be even without the ghosts around us nodding emphatically. 

“Okay.” I murmured. 

“Okay?” Tony smiled. 

I nodded. 

“Okay.” He smiled. “Come on, then. You’re going to love it. I promise.” He reached down and snagged my hand before he led me back towards the car. 

He paused a few feet away as the most pressing question finally occurred to him. I smirked as he asked it. 

“You see dead people, right?” 

“Please don’t make this a thing.” I teased.

Tony smirked but pressed on. “They won’t cause problems? Possess anything? Write cryptic messages on the walls in blood?” 

A few of the dead surrounding us huffed in annoyance and offense. A few stuck their tongues out at him. 

I struggled not to laugh. “They’re dead, Tony. Their mischief days are over. At least for you. I, on the other hand, still have to deal with them, so maybe try not to annoy them, okay?” 

Tony rolled his eyes but started back towards the car again. “If you insist.” 

He walked to the passenger side of the car and held the door open for me. I smiled at him as I slipped past him and took a deep breath as he shut the door behind me.

He quickly moved across to the driver's side and slipped in beside me.

“Do you need to stop somewhere? Pick up your things?” He asked.

I shook my head. “No. Everything I own is in here.” I said, holding up my backpack. 

Tony glanced at it with something dark brewing in his eyes but thankfully, he didn’t ask anything else. He just nodded his head and pulled out of the parking lot, heading for the highway.

“So.” I started, watching as we pulled out of the city limits of the place I’d just started getting to know. “Where’s home for you this time of the year?”

Tony shot me an amused half-glare. “Home is wherever I am. Obviously. And that’s the case year-round.”

“Oh, of course. Apologies.” I chuckled. 

He chuckled. “But right now, I just happen to be in Malibu.” He clarified.

My smile faded off my face as I turned to him. “Malibu?” I asked. “But that’s . . .”

“Five hours away?” Tony nodded, his hands gripping the steering wheel a little more tightly. “You should get some sleep. I’ll wake you up when we get close.”

“Tony.” I reached out and softly put my hand on his arm. “Why did you come here?”

Tony let out a long breath before he slipped one hand off the wheel to grab at mine. “I’ve been looking for you.” He admitted.

“Why?” There were so many things being left unsaid between the both of us in this moment but it didn’t matter. I could feel what he wasn’t ready to say out loud yet and it brought tears to my eyes.

“You’re worth finding.” He said instead.

I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you.” 

He squeezed the hand he was still holding. “Anytime, honey.” He murmured back.

Tony POV---------------------------------------

I glanced over at her as we got closer and closer to our exit. She’d fallen asleep a few hours ago and I was relieved. There were dark bags under her eyes that said she hadn’t been sleeping. 

I wondered if it had anything to do with her specter friends. I glanced in the rearview mirror. There wasn’t exactly room for anyone else in my Audi, but then again . . . did ghosts really take up that much space?

I cleared my throat and glanced at her, making sure she was still asleep before I spoke. “Okay, Caspers. If you’re in here. I have a little message for you to deliver to your little phantom friends. This woman here? She’s my lady now and that means that I’m going to do everything in my power to protect her. So. You’re either going to get on board with that or you’re going to get the hell out of dodge. Do I make myself clear?”

Silence engulfed the car until I heard someone laughing.

I glanced to the side and smiled wryly as my Angel in Blue sat up and grinned at me. “Was that message for me? ‘Cuz I hate to break it to you; there’s no one else in the car.”

I shook my head. “Really? Not even a single Capser?”

She shook her head, a grin stretched across her lips. “Not a one.”

I shook my head in mock disappointment. “Then I’m going to have to do it all again, huh? That’s fine. I can workshop it a little. I feel like I’m missing a great opportunity to make a few exorcist jokes.”

She glanced at me wryly. “Mmm. Didn’t we decide you _weren’t_ going to provoke the things that make my life a living hell at times?”

My smile slid off my face and I reached for her hand, squeezing it tightly in mine. “Can’t you stop it?” I squeezed her hand a little tighter in mine as I waited for the answer. I’d spent months searching for her. I’d spent months holding a piece of her close to my heart. It didn’t matter that I’d only met her twice. Something told me that this was it. This was my endgame. I NEEDED to protect her.

She shook her head gently and squeezed my hand back. “It’s okay, Tony.” She said gently, sensing my panic. “I’m always okay.”

“You say that now . . .”

“I brought you back, didn’t I? And I’m still here standing.”

I shook my head softly and smiled in her direction. “Well, that’s just ‘cuz you’re an angel.”

She threw her head back and laughed and for once, my demons were just as awed as I was.

I felt something stir in my heart and I struggled to keep it locked tight. I wasn’t ready for her to know yet but I already knew. I was falling in love with her. And damn if I wasn’t looking forward to the rest of the journey.

We pulled into the driveway twenty minutes later. Her eyes were wide as she took in the house. I cleared my throat and gestured towards the front door. “Come on, I’ll give you the grand tour. Maybe once you see the guest room, you’ll be inclined to stay awhile.” Oh, how I hoped she wanted to stay awhile.

“Does it have a jacuzzi?” She teased.

I cocked my head and thought about it a second. “Uh, yeah. Come to think of it. I think all of them do.”

“You don’t know?” There was no judgment there. Only curiosity. 

I shrugged. “I spent most of my time designing the lab and the garage. The rest of it someone else took care of. I just paid for it.”

She nodded slowly and glanced around as we walked in the front door and JARVIS started turning things on.

“It’s automated?”

“No, miss.” JARVIS chimed in.

She jumped forward, latching on to my suit coat.

“Sorry. Sorry.” I murmured, reaching back to press her closer to my back. “You’re safe here. That’s just JARVIS. He’s my AI. He runs the house and . . . well . . . my whole life really. You can ask him if you need anything.”

“JARVIS?” She asked, her hands loosening from around me as she stepped away. 

“Yes, Miss Angel. I apologize, I didn’t mean to startle you earlier.”

“Miss Angel?” She turned a quizzical eye my way. JARVIS started to respond but I quickly interrupted. “Uh . . . hmmm . . . uh. Just a bug. A glitch. I’ll look into it. You can have him call you whatever you like.”

“That’s okay, uh, JARVIS. You can call me Angel if you’d like.” She turned to me. “Though it’s not _accurate._ ” She sent me a mock glare.

I smiled in relief and shrugged nonchalantly. “If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck . . .”

“Then it’s just a duck!” She laughed.

The sound made me smile as it echoed through the space. It had been too long since a sound like that had filled the house.

“Come on, honey. Let me show you around.” I stepped towards her and held out a hand for her to take. She shook her head and backed away, an air of mischief about her.

“Uh, uh, uh, _Mister_ Stark. I’ve just been introduced to an eligible bachelor. Don’t think you can third wheel this date. Go make yourself useful and let me and JARVIS get to know one another.”

JARVIS absolutely stuttered to my delight and I grinned. I hadn’t even realized he could do that. “ _Mister_ Stark? Geez honey, you wound me.”

She shook her head and wandered away. “Oh what, oh what will you do?”

“Right this way, miss.” JARVIS said, lighting up the path in front of her.

I smiled after her as she disappeared. “Pine after you!” I called.

She didn’t turn around, but I watched her shake her head until she were out of sight. “I want to keep her, J. Don’t scare her off.”

“I’ll do my best, sir. What shall you be doing?”

I turned towards the stairs and headed for the lab. “I’m going to see if I can’t build some ghost hunting tools.”

JARVIS sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Questions? Comments? Concerns?
> 
> Writing this fluff has been so much fun! But we're headed straight for Iron Man 3. 
> 
> Hope you're ready. XD


	7. The New Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

I didn’t realize just how much time had passed until JARVIS turned my music down and I heard her voice in the doorway. “Hi.”

“Hi, yourself. Come to see where the magic happens, huh?” I wiped my hands on a rag, grinning at how perfectly she just seemed to fit down here. She shifted her weight, glancing around the room from the doorway. I gestured her in. “Come on in. I don’t bite. Unless you want me to.”

She scoffed at me, but the line got her to loosen up, just like I’d hoped. She shuffled into the lab the rest of the way and I finally took her in.

She’d changed since the last time I’d seen her. She was in a thin tank top and short pajama bottoms. Her bare feet plodded across the room as she took in everything with the same wide-eyed stare she’d had earlier.

She stopped beside me and handed me a box. “Pizza?” I asked.

She barely spared me a glance. “I hope you don’t mind. JARVIS said it would be okay to order it. Did you know you don’t have any food in your pantry?”

I winced behind her back as I bit into my dinner. “Really?” I feigned surprise. “JARVIS - put together a grocery order will you?”

“Right away, sir.” Was it just me? Or did he sound a little condescending?

I ignored it, for now, and took another bite of pizza as her gaze zeroed in on the blueprints I was working on. “Are . . . are you trying to design an EMF reader?”

“And a functioning ghost box.”

Her shoulders were shaking. “Are you laughing right now, really?”

She spun around and nodded, tears streaming down her face as she pressed a hand against her mouth.

“You are! Wow. I invite you into my home out of the goodness of my heart and you laugh at me. No more pizza for you!”

She immediately tried to straighten her face out, but she couldn’t quite get rid of her smile as she lunged for the box that I held above her head. “No! Not the pizza! I’m sorry! I promise! I’m sorry!”

I laughed and held the box even higher. She shook her head and got a crazy look in her eye. That was the only warning I had before she jumped at me. Her legs wrapped around my waist as she reached up for the box in my hands. Instinctively, I dropped it as my own arms wrapped around her waist, keeping her pressed against me.

I glanced up at her, and my breath caught in my lungs as my nose brushed against hers. Her hand slowly lowered and wrapped around my neck and I felt her heart beating furiously against mine. “Hi.” She whispered, leaning closer.

“Hi, yourself.” I murmured, leaning to meet her.

Our lips touched and I could have sworn my heart stopped beating altogether. That  _ thing _ inside of me. That part of her soul that would be mind forever, SUNG and for the first time  _ ever,  _ I was at peace.

“Move in with me.” I murmured, pulling away.

“I thought I already did.” She breathed, looking frazzled.

I smiled to myself and reached up to brush some hair out of her face. “Permenently.”

She pretended to think about it for a moment before she leaned in and pressed another quick kiss to my lips. “I do like the benefits.” She murmured.

She pushed away, and slid down my body, doing nothing to help my current situation before she picked up the pizza box off the floor and grabbed another slice. “I’ll be in the jacuzzi!” She called as she sauntered out of the room.

I took a deep breath and swallowed hard. “Wait, was  _ that _ the benefit you were talking about?!” I called after her.

She grinned at me from behind the window as she headed back upstairs. “Minx.” I murmured, a wide grin breaking across my face.

Your POV-----------------------

I jolted awake. I sat in bed, glancing around in fear as I struggled to get my breathing back under control. The dead surrounded me, as they usually did, but none of them were watching me. Their gazes were glued to the door where faint cries were sounding. “JARVIS?” I asked, the laser focus the ghosts had on my door a little disturbing, even for me.

“Mr. Stark’s having a nightmare.”

“Should we wake him up?”

One of the ghosts turned to me and nodded slowly.

I shoved my feet out from under the covers and moved towards the door.

“It goes against my programming to try.” JARVIS murmured.

“I can do it.” I opened my door and slipped into the dark hallway. Behind me, a trail of ghosts followed and I glanced at them in confusion. When had they ever been so interested in a single human before?

I pushed the thought aside as I plodded carefully to the master bedroom. I knocked lightly on the door and hoped Tony wasn’t the kind of person who slept with a gun under his pillow. I didn’t quite feel like fishing bullets out of my brain tonight. There was no answer.

“Tony?” I called softly after a moment.

There was still no answer. I knocked again before I turned the knob and poked my head in the room. “Tony?”

Tony was twitching on the bed. He had his arms wrapped tightly around his pillow and he was letting out terrified grunts as he clung to his pillow. “Tony, wake up.”

He didn’t seem to notice me at all.

I pushed further into the room, feeling like I was intruding in something, but this close to my soul piece and I could feel everything. He was  _ terrified. _ I had to help.

I moved to his bedside and leaned over him. I put a hand against his face. “Tony, wake up. It’s just a dream. Tony . . . come back to me.”

Tony’s eyes fluttered as I stroked gently under his eyes. His death grip on his pillow loosened and his breathing evened out. “JARVIS?” I whispered.

“His vitals are returning to normal. I believe you’ve calmed him through the worst of it.”

I nodded and moved to slip away but I couldn’t help myself as I first leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Tony smiled in his sleep. “My angel.” He murmured.

I shook my head and stroked his face one last time before I turned to leave. Before I had even taken a step away from the bed, his hand shot out to grab my wrist. “Please don’t leave me.” He murmured.

I glanced at him, but I couldn’t tell if he was asleep or not. I couldn’t fight my instinct to comfort him though. I hesitated only a moment before I slid into bed beside him, wrapping him in my arms as I burrowed against his back. “You’re safe, Tony. I’ve got you.”

His arm wrapped around mine and kept them firmly pressed against his stomach. He settled back into sleep moments later.

I let out a deep breath and followed him not long after.

Tony POV -----------------------

I woke up feeling . . . rested. 

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt like that.

I kept my eyes squeezed shut and was actually thinking about maybe even going back to sleep when something sighed and shifted in my arms. My eyes flew open and I looked down to see my Angel in Blue sleeping peacefully in front of me. Her hands were curled under her face and her brows were drawn together as though trying to keep the sun out of her face. 

“JARVIS, dim the lights, will you?” I murmured, instinctively. Instantly, the creeping sun was banished and her expression smoothed out. 

“What happened?”

“You had a nightmare. She heard you. You asked her to stay.”

“Is that all?” I asked, reaching over to stroke her check tenderly.

“I’ve never seen you sleep so peacefully.” JARVIS noted.

A smile broke across my face as I leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. “I’ve never felt so peaceful, J.”

She smiled and hummed in her sleep before she burrowed further into the pillows. It just might have been the cutest thing I’d ever seen and I was suddenly overcome with the need to do something for her. To show her how much she’d already come to mean to me. 

I put my years of practice into use as I slid out of bed, careful not to wake her up and slipped out of the room.

“Tell me those groceries were delivered, J.”

“They’re in the kitchen now, sir.”

“Excellent.”

I moved into the kitchen feeling a new sense of normal wash over me and an even bigger grin crossed my lips. I could almost see it now. The white picket fence. The two kids. The lovable scamp of a dog.

I could do Iron Man on the side. The world needed me.

The grin slid off my face and memories of my nightmare flooded me.

The sounds of frying bacon faded into the background as I struggled to catch my breath. Because I couldn’t have those things. Not the house. Not the kids. Not her . . . Those  _ things _ would always be out there. There was an infinite world outside our small speck of space and they knew about us now. They were  _ COMING _ for us now. I clawed at the counter, trying to keep myself upright as my knees gave out underneath me. Distantly, I could hear JARVIS talking, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I felt like the world was spiraling around me and I couldn’t get a damn grip on reality. I felt like I was suffocating and I clawed at my neck, trying to loosen the noose around it.

A gentle touch stilled my hands against my neck and I looked up to see  _ her _ . Her lips were moving as she took my hand and flattened it against her chest. She held it there until I was able to hold it there on my own and then she took my face in her hands and leaned her head against mine. I felt the steady beat of her heart as it pounded inside, strong and steady. Firm. Anchoring.

I took a shuddering breath and then another. Slowly, the world came into focus around me.

“. . . I thought about getting bangs but some of these ghosts have bangs and they look like they died with that regret. Not sure it’s worth the hassle anyway. I don’t think I’ve ever had a haircut that I’ve really liked.”

I chuckled though it sounded more choked than anything. “I can set you up with my lady. She’s a wizard with a pair of scissors.”

“You don’t just cut it yourself?” She asked, running her hands through my hair. My eyes fluttered shut at the sensation and I swallowed hard.

“Rude.”

“What?” She was smiling. I could hear it in her voice and I let the last of my panic wash away as I clung to the sound. “I like it.”

I smiled softly and tugged on her hair. “Let me up. You’re burning the bacon. I just know it.”

She pushed to her feet and pointed to the bacon as I weakly followed after her. “I’ll have you know, I take breakfast very seriously. I turned off the oven like a responsible adult.”

I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to me. I pressed a kiss to the top of her head and lingered there for a minute before I gently pushed her towards one of the barstools. “Go on. I planned on making you breakfast in bed. At least let me finish it down here.”

She smiled at me, a radiant smile that didn’t have an ounce of judgement in it and I had to turn back to the stove before she could see the tears starting to pool in my eyes. 

I cooked the rest of breakfast in silence. Every so often I would glance over my shoulder to see her gazing at something, eyes glazed over, off in the distance. A few times I opened my mouth to ask about it before I quickly turned back to the stove.

I probably didn’t want to know.

I turned off the stove and slid a plate of eggs and bacon in front of her before I turned and finished making her coffee. I slid that in front of her too before I sat beside her.

I stared at my breakfast for a long minute. “We should talk about what happened.” I mumbled, forcing the words out of my mouth.

She hardly seemed to be paying attention as she shoveled a forkful of omelet into her mouth. “Why?” She asked.

I turned to stare at her blankly and she repeated her question. “Why? Do you  _ want _ to talk about it?”

I opened and closed my mouth. I . . . no. I didn’t. But Pepper had always wanted to know . . .

She smiled at me and reached over to squeeze my arm gently. “When you  _ want _ to talk about it, I’m here.”

I reached over and squeezed her wrist before I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Thank you.” I murmured.

She smiled at me. “I’m not going anywhere.” She promised.

I held her hand as I took a bite of my eggs. I made a face. “Needs salt.”

She laughed. “Needed to be cooked a little longer.”

I grimaced. “I’ll order out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iron Man 3 starts next time! 
> 
> See you then!


	8. A New Threat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the real story begins . . .

The music cut off and a smile was already on my face before her voice rang out. “I ordered food. I know you said you were going to cook for me, but . . .”

I shook my head as I turned around. “I made you inedible eggs ONCE, two months ago, and I never live it down.”

She pouted as she walked into the lab, a carryout tray of coffee in one hand and two takeout boxes that smelled suspiciously like french toast in the other. “It was my first morning here and you tried to poison me.” She set the food on the desk and stepped between my legs before she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down so she could press a quick kiss to my lips. “It was almost like you were trying to drive me away.”

I shook my head firmly and pulled her tighter to me so I could kiss her senseless. She shook her head a few minutes later and pulled away. “I don’t think so,  _ mister _ . I, for one, want to eat breakfast before it gets cold for once.”

I pouted but she only laughed and grabbed her coffee and one of the boxes before she skipped away to the other side of the lab.

I watched her go with a grin on my face.

Two months had passed since I’d somehow convinced her to come home with me and I still couldn’t believe it. She’d become my rock. The rest of the so-called ‘team’ couldn’t be bothered to even pick up the phone after the Battle of New York. None of them even know I’d met someone. Let alone what she’d done for me. I was selfish enough to want to keep it that way.

I was healing. 

I liked to think she was too, because I wasn’t stupid enough to miss the signs. There was a darkness that hovered around her just like it hovered around me. Every now and again a soul wrenching pain would shoot through the piece of her that was permanently a part of me and I knew she was dealing with her own demons. 

But we made it work, the two of us. 

And with the Iron Legion in all its incarnations; I’d be able to protect this fragile home we’d built together. 

I settled down on my desk to dig into my dinner. I opened up the box and saw that, sure enough, it was french toast. I sent an amused glance in her direction. “Really?”

She shrugged and smiled as she dug into her own food. “Breakfast for dinner. It’s a thing.”

“Sure it is, sweetheart.”

I took a bite before I turned back to the latest project I was working on. I chewed as I reached for the microrepeater injector. “Let’s try it again, J.” I said.

She watched curiously from her perch across the lab as I held it up to my arm and shot myself again. “Ow!”

“Forty-seven.” JARVIS counted. “Sir, perhaps you should take a few hours to calibrate . . .”

“No.” I shot myself again. “OW! That one  _ really _ hurt.”

She set her food aside and moved towards me. “Tony . . .” Her eyes were concerned. 

I shook my arm out and plastered a grin on my face. “It’s fine. See?” I shot myself again.

JARVIS sighed. “Microrepeater implating sequence complete.”

I took a towel and started mopping up the blood dripping down my arm. My Angel in Blue tsked before she took the towel and gently started cleaning my arm.

“What would I do without you?” I asked gently.

She glanced up at me with resigned amusement. “Get yourself killed, most likely.”

I chuckled, and clucked my fingers under her chin, tilting her face up so I could press a lingering kiss to her lips.

She broke away and grinned before she turned back to my arm.

“You ready, J?” I asked as she finished and ran her finger down the smooth skin. It almost looked like I hadn’t just injected myself with dozens of tiny microchips.

“I’ve prepared a safety briefing which I assume you’ll entirely ignore.”

“You’d be correct.” I said, jumping to my feet. I leaned over to take another bite of my food before I moved to the platform. I glanced at her and winked. “Alright. Let's do this.”

“Sir . . . may I remind you that you’ve been awake for almost 72 hours now?”

“What?!” She dropped her food in her lap and turned her glare on me.

I winced. “Thanks. Thanks for that JARVIS.”

I held my hands up and moved towards her. “It’s not what you think, honey.”

She folded her arms across her chest and glared. “Sure sounds like it.”

I crossed to the table she was perched on and placed my hands on either side of her lap, pinning her in. “I’m fine.” I whispered.

“You always say that.” She whispered back.

“I almost always mean it.” I pointed out.

She sighed and glanced at something just over my shoulder. Her eyes narrowed on it slightly and I had to resist the urge to turn around and shudder. I HATED when she did that.

Eventually, she turned back to me with a resigned expression on her face. “The ghosts are on my side again, aren’t they?”

She grumbled something under her breath before she reached for her food and angrily speared another bite of french toast. I chuckled and pressed a kiss to her head before I danced back to the platform. I had a good feeling about this.

“Alright. Focus up ladies, and honored guests.” I bowed in her direction and saw the smile she was fighting to hide back. 

“Welcome to the birthing suite. I’m honored to announce the imminent arrival of your bouncing, bad-ass, baby brother.” I turned to the camera. “Start tight and go wide. This is the Mark 42 autonomous prehensile propulsion test.”  
“Take one!” She called from the sidelines. I rolled my eyes and glared at her. She saluted with her fork. 

“Just helping you out, baby.” 

“Initalize sequence.” I ordered, pointedly ignoring her. I looked at the suit on the table and flicked out my hands. The thrusters flickered and died and the shin guard clattered against the table. I slumped. “Come on, guys. You’re embarrassing me here.”

I adjusted my stance and threw out my wrist again. This time, the pieces didn’t move at all. “What the hell.” I murmured, slapping at my arm.

“Have you tried turning it on and off again?” She asked.

“I’ll try turning YOU on and off again.”

“Ooooh, yeah. Let’s try that.”

I chuckled and pointed at her. “Not like that! Get your mind out of the gutter.” I reached over and covered DUM-E’s ears. ‘Later.’ I mouthed.

She winked.

I shook my head and moved back into position. “They’re firing, right, J?”

“Everything seems to be in order, sir.”

“Here we go then. Liven up everyone!” I shuffled on my feet a bit and then flicked my wrists. The gauntlet jumped off the table and shot towards me. It slammed into my hand, and unfolded until my shoulder was encased in the armor. “Now we’re talking!” I flung my other wrist out and the second gauntlet lifted off the table and shot towards me. I smiled and laughed as she cheered from the sidelines.

“Alright! I think we got this! Send ‘em all!” I ordered, holding up both hands.

I glanced at the table just in time to see a hunk of metal flying right for my face. I threw up my arm just in time to deflect the boot before it crashed into me and it went soaring into a corner of the lab. “Get down, honey!” I ordered.

She dove under the table just as I threw myself against the floor to avoid another piece of the suit before it hit me in the nuts. “Just . . . just a little fast, J! Let’s slow it down a little bit!”

I pushed to my feet and the chest plate collided against me, pushing me back a few steps and knocking the wind right out of me. The back of the helmet crept over my head and the front slid down to connect with the leg armor. I turned to see the face plate hovering in midair. “I’m not afraid of you.” I gestured for it to hit me with its best shot.

The thing flew through the air and smashed into my face. I grunted at the force of the impact but couldn’t help but smile. “I’m the best.”

“Watch out!” Her voice screamed.

My head whipped in her direction and something came out of nowhere and clashed into me and I went flying forward. I fell to the ground, the force of the impact sending the armor scattering in every direction. I groaned as I rolled onto my back and pulled at my helmet. 

“Are you okay?” A voice breathless with laughter asked.

I pulled the face plate off and struggled to catch my breath. “Yeah. Yeah. Fine.” 

“As always sir, a pleasure to watch you work.” JARVIS sassed. I flipped him the bird while my Angel in Blue moved to help me sit up.

“Aw. Come on. Don’t be like that.” She teased. “ _ I  _ think it’s a pleasure to watch you work too.”

I reached up to gently trace a finger over the superficial cut across her forehead. “Even when you get caught in the crossfire?”

“Even then.” She smiled and kissed me. “You do owe me dinner though.”

I glanced over her shoulder just in time to see DUM-E extinguish a fire right where her food had been. “Oops.”

My phone rang and I dug in my pocket looking for it. “Hi, Happy.” I squinted at my phone. “I’m sorry, or is it the forehead of security?”

The camera on Happy’s phone jiggled as he shuffled it around. “What? You know what? I have a real job here, man.”

“And we’re very proud of you.” My Angel in Blue said, slapping my shoulder.

Happy breathed your name with a welcome sigh. I was almost jealous. “Hey. What are you up to? Are we still on for tonight?”

She nodded. “Nine, right? I wouldn’t miss it.”

“Miss what?” I asked, glancing back and forth between them. “What am I missing?”

Happy rolled his eyes. “I’ve been asked to help out a  _ FRIEND  _ by teaching her self-defense.  _ She _ happens to think I’m an excellent teacher.”

I glanced over at her and shot her a look. “Oh THAT’S how it is, huh?”

“What?” She grinned.

“He can teach you self defense but I can’t build you a suit? Really?”

She gapped at me. “ _ HAPPY  _ is head of security.”

“And I’m Iron Man.”

“Uh, boss.” Happy interrupted.

“We’re finishing this later.” I murmured, pointing at her. “What, Hogan?”

“I got something goin’ on here. I need you to come down.”

“What’s going on? Fill me in.” I gestured out of the room. “Go order something. I’ll meet you upstairs. Picnic in the bed.” I murmured, turning towards her.

“Yeah?” She whispered back as Happy launched into his explanation.

I nodded. “You can send your minions to haunt me if I miss it.”

She chuckled, kissed my forehead and left the lab, leaving me alone with Happy and the burning remains of my failed trial run.

“. . . and now he’s showing her his big brain.”

I turned back to Happy and squinted. “His what?”

“Big. Brain. And she likes it. I’m tellin’ ya, boss. Something's up. Here. Let me show you.”

Happy raised his phone and it looked like he was trying to switch to the front facing camera.

“You know, Happy, Pepper and I aren’t together any more and I have a good thing going here.”

“No. Yeah. I know that. I love your Angel or whatever it is you call her.”

“Angel in Blue.”

“Yeah. That. But Pepper . . .”

“Is fine. It’s none of our business who she dates, Happy. Unless you’re interested?”

Happy fumbled with his phone and nearly dropped it before he recovered. “ _ What _ ? NO!”

“Okay. So . . . let it go.”

“But boss . . .”

“I have a date waiting for me. So, sorry! I gotta go. You coming for your after date with my girl here? Or is she meeting you somewhere?”

“I’m coming to you.”

“Okay. See you then. Bye!”

I hung up the phone against Happy’s protests and tossed it on the desk. I pushed to my feet and glanced at DUM-E. “Hey. DUM-E. You’ve got this covered, right?” I gestured around at the destroyed lab. 

He waved his arm around as he glanced at everything and beeped in horror.

“Knew I could count on you, buddy.” I waved him away and then I headed for the stairs and for my dinner date. 

Hours later, I sat with her curled into my side. “This is ridiculous.” I murmured, gesturing at the movie she was making me watch. “You’re telling me that Kevin never once thought that maybe it was suspicious she wasn’t acting the same.”

She chuckled as she slapped my chest. “Shhh! You’re running the moment!”

I rolled my eyes but pulled her tighter to my side as the movie climaxed with the most ridiculous proclamation of love I’d ever seen.

“I can’t believe you made me sit through all that.” I grumbled as the credits started rolling.

She shrugged and tipped her head back so she could look at me. “I can’t believe you stayed.”

I leaned down and kissed her. “You have me wrapped around your little finger. Anything you want, anytime you want it. You know that.”

She grinned and rolled onto her stomach. She reached up and pulled me down so she could slide over me. She leaned down and kissed me hard, wiggling her hips just right. We both groaned and I was just about to flip her over and have my wicked way with her when JARVIS interrupted.

“I’m sorry, sir.”

I groaned for different reasons and glared at the ceiling. “What, J?”

“I have the hospital on the line. They’re asking to speak with you.” 

I glanced at her and she climbed off of me until we were both sitting in bed. “Put it through.” I ordered.

“Mr. Stark?” A new voice asked over the speakers.

“Speaking. What’s this about?”

“I’m sorry for the late call, sir, but I have you listed as the emergency contact for a Harold Hogan?”

My heart skipped a beat and next to me, my Angel tensed. “What happened? Is he okay?” She asked.

“I’m afraid not. Mr. Hogan was involved in an explosion earlier today. He’s being treated in the emergency room as we speak.”

“We’ll be there in fifteen.” She said, scrambling out of bed. 

I followed after her. “Ten!” I hung up the call and threw on a hoodie and a pair of shoes. In record time, the two of us were dressed. She reached for my hand as we sprinted for the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buckle up, buttercups. 
> 
> We're going on an ADVENTURE.


	9. Not How I Remember it Happening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus chapter tonight just for you; JohnathansKitten. XD
> 
> Welcome to the rodeo.

Tony broke every traffic law I could think of as he sped through the streets of Malibu. I would have made a joke about joining the dead sooner rather than later, but my own heart was beating too furiously for me to even think of the right words. Happy, our Happy, was hurt.

It was a relief when seven minutes later, we screeched to a stop in front of the hospital. I was out of the car before Tony had a chance to come open my door like he liked to do. I reached for his hand as we met in front and the two of us took off for the front doors.

We raced to the reception desk. 

“Happy, Happy Hogan.” Tony panted.

I glanced at him and could feel the panic threatening to consume him whole. I squeezed his hand tightly in mine, reminding him that I was with him and he wasn’t alone before I turned to the receptionist. “I’m sorry. We just got a call that our friend, Harold Hogan, was in an accident and was being treated here. Can you tell us where he is?”

The receptionist was staring wide-eyed at Tony but she shook herself out of her stupor and turned to her screen. “He’s just getting out of the O.R. You can take a seat over there and I’ll call you when he can take visitors.”

“Thank you.” I murmured, smiling as wide as I was able to under the circumstances. Then, I turned to Tony and took his arm, gently leading him to the waiting area.

His breathing seemed to be evening out as he pulled me close to his side and pressed a hard kiss to the top of my head and I knew he was struggling to remind himself that I was safe, here, with him. 

My safety had been his first priority from day one.

I had to love that about him.

It had been a long time since anyone else had cared.

“I’m okay, Tony. We both are. And Happy will be too. This is the best hospital around. They’ll save him.”

Tony reached for my hands as we settled into the uncomfortable waiting room chairs. He looked into my eyes and his own widened. “You can save him.” He murmured, leaning closer. 

“What?”

“Like you did with me. You can  _ save _ him.”

I swallowed hard, and darted my eyes out to look at the dozens of dead that crowded the small waiting room. Not a single one was looking at me. I wasn’t going to get any help from them.

“I’m serious.” Tony said frantically, already pushing to his feet as he pulled me back to the receptionist. “You can save him. You have to save him. Please. Save him.”

I swallowed hard, frantically looking for any of the dead who’d be willing to help. A single soul glanced up at me and shook his head slowly. I hardened my nerves and let Tony bribe the receptionist so we could see Happy sooner. I’d never tried something like this without the help of those on the other side. I wasn’t sure I could do it on my own. But Happy was my friend too.

I had to try.

Tony POV--------------------------

I tugged my Angel in Blue through the hallway on our way to Happy’s room. The nurses were just wheeling him into a private room as we arrived. “He’ll be under for awhile.” One of them warned.

I nodded but waved them off quickly. None of that mattered now. I waited until they finished puttering around the room and then I closed the door behind them and then I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed the top of her head. “What do you need?” I asked.

She fiddled with her hands but shook her head. “Just . . . just stand back.” 

I squeezed her waist once more before I moved to the other side of the bed and looked down at Happy’s battered features. 

She took a deep breath and stepped closer to Happy. “I’m going to be okay.” She murmured. It almost sounded like she was talking to herself. 

An anxious feeling suddenly shot through me and I reached out an arm. “Honey? Maybe you shouldn’t . . .”

She grabbed Happy’s face and pressed a featherlight kiss against his lips. I froze in place, waiting for the miracle and desperately pleading for it on Happy’s behalf.

Minutes or hours later, she stumbled backwards, a dazed expression on her face. “Honey?” I asked, stepping towards her.

She shook her head and kept her eyes glued to Happy’s face.

Only a moment later, Happy started choking as his eyes flew open and he tried to breathe on his own, around the tube they’d forced down his throat. Alarms started beeping frantically and the door was flung open as nurses poured in, shoving me and my Angel into the corner as they worked on Happy. 

They pushed something into Happy’s IV that made his eyes roll back into his head. He slumped back down to the mattress and they wasted no time in pulling the tube from his throat. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” They were whispering.

“It’s impossible.”

“It’s some sort of miracle.”

A few of them glanced in my direction suspiciously, but I didn’t care. Let them think what they wanted, as long as Happy was okay.

“He’s going to be okay.” One of them said, practically reading my mind as she stepped forward. “We had to sedate him to get the tube out, but it seems like he’s breathing on his own now. He’s making an astonishingly quick recovery.”

I beamed as I turned to my Angel. “Hear that, honey?” My grin slid off my face as I watched her blink confusedly around the room. I took a step closer and reached for her. “Honey?”

She collapsed to the ground.

I lunged for her, but one of the nurses caught me around the arm, and pulled me away before she dropped to her knees by Y/N. They rolled her over and checked her vitals.

“She’s not breathing.”

I stopped breathing.

“I don’t have a pulse.”

My heart stopped.

“Get a crash cart in here! Code blue!”

I was shuffled into the hallway as a handful more nurses rushed into the room and worked in earnest to bring my Angel back to life. 

My heart pounded in my chest and I felt sick to my stomach. This wasn’t how I remembered it happening. Not when she’d saved me. 

I wanted to shove back into the room and demand that the nurses back away. She would be fine. She  _ was _ fine. She had to be  _ fine _ .

The nurses transferred her to a gurney and raced her out of the room. One of them climbed on top, keeping chest compressions going as they raced through the hall. I moved to race after them but a nurse stopped in front of me and put a hand against my chest. “We’ve got it from here.”

“But . . .”

“Someone will come get you . . .” He trailed off but I heard the unspoken words anyway. ‘If we manage to stabilize her.’ ‘When it’s time to say goodbye.’ ‘If we need you.’

I swallowed hard and moved, like a dream, back into Happy’s room. I sunk into a chair next to his bed and stared at my hands wondering how, in less than twenty-four hours, we’d suddenly gotten here. I ran my hands over my face and hoped that I’d wake up from this nightmare soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Questions? Comments? Prophecies?! 
> 
> Bring 'em on. XD


	10. Holiday Greetings From Tony Stark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MrsxFredweasley - this one's for you. XD

The screen flickered to black and then an angry red glow lit up the screen. “True story about fortune cookies . . . They look Chinese. They sound Chinese. But actually, they’re an American invention. Which is why they’re hollow and full of lies.” Flashes of images crossed the screen and the smoking remains of the Chinese Theatre was shown. “My disciples just destroyed another American knock-off. Mr. President. I know you must be getting frustrated. But I have good news for you. The season of terror is finally coming to a close. The big one is coming, Mr. President. Are you ready for it?”

“Mr. Stark?” I turned my attention away from the TV that had suddenly switched back to showing the latest rerun of Downton Abbey. A timid looking nurse stood in the doorway. “They’re looking for you. The woman you were brought with . . .”

I pushed to my feet. “She’s okay? She’s okay, right?”

The man swallowed hard and gestured down the hall. “They need you.”

My heart stopped beating again.

My hands started trembling against my sides as I wordlessly followed the man out of Happy’s room. I nodded at the two guards I’d had Pepper send over from the company and they moved in front of the door, keeping Happy guarded inside. It was all I could do for now.

The nurse was practically jogging through the hallway, but I didn’t mind his frantic pace. I was overcome with a need to see her again and hold her in my arms. Just a few hours ago, we were in bed together and now my entire world was falling apart. I felt like I was grasping at straws, struggling to keep my head above water. 

The nurse leading me didn’t seem to notice as he passed through hallway after hallway and finally gestured at a single door. 

I glanced at him and then at the door. My breath caught in my throat and I had to force my trembling hands to reach for the door.

The nurse who had led me here disappeared in a flash as I stepped inside.

My world shattered around me.

My Angel in Blue was lying on the table. Tubes and wires were sticking in every direction as machines kept her heart pumping and her lungs breathing. I wordlessly turned to the doctor. “Mr. Stark?”

I nodded.

The doctor sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “We’ve run some tests and there is no easy way to say this . . .”

My fists clenched at my sides. No.

“I’m afraid she’s not registering any brain activity. We have no idea what triggered it, but the results are undeniable. I’m afraid she’s brain-dead. It may be time to start putting her affairs in order.”

I pointed an angry finger at the doctor as I let all the panic within me morph into something white hot and furious. “You’re fired.”

He looked shocked for a minute before his own expression shifted into an angry mask. “Sir, you may not want to hear what I have to say . . .”

I shook my head and stomped out of the room. “You!” I shouted, pointing at the first lab coat I saw. The woman glanced up in shock. “You a doctor?”

She glanced over my shoulder at the has-been who followed me out of the room but nodded as her eyes met mine. “How much do you make working here?”

She opened her mouth to answer but I cut her off. “Nevermind. Whatever it is, I’ll double it. I just need you to transfer the woman in that room to my personal address. Whatever equipment you need, you let me know. We’re not pulling the plug on her. You got that?”

The woman nodded quickly before she left the chart she was working on, on the table and moved into the room to check the set up. 

“Now wait a minute!” An arm reached out and snagged my shoulder, forcing me to spin around. I reached into my pocket and in the next second, an iron gauntlet had folded over my wrist. I aimed it at him.

“Get. Out. Of. My. Way.”

The doctor flung his arms up in the air and backed away. The entire floor had gone silent. I could feel all their eyes on me and suddenly, it was like I was drowning again. I wasn’t getting enough oxygen and I needed to get the hell out of there. The smells of disinfectant, the steady beeps of the heart monitors . . . everything was overloading my already frayed nerves as a single line repeated itself over and over in my head. “She’s dead. You killed her. She’s dead.”

I deactivated the gauntlet and glanced into my Angel’s room where her new doctor was staring at me, still in shock. “Bring her to my place. I’ll meet you there.”

She nodded seriously and I turned and stumbled out of the room, down the hall and into the stairwell. I collapsed against the wall, sucking in heaving lungsful of air as I tried to stop my head from spinning.

This whole time. This whole damn time I’d been worried about the threats out  _ there _ but I should have been worried about the threats  _ here.  _ Happy had been hurt. My Angel was dead and I was somehow just as alone as I always had been.

My fingers curled into fists as I switched gears and forced myself to hone in on the true criminal here.

_ The Mandarian.  _

If he hadn’t blown up the Chinese Theatre, Happy never would have been hurt.

If Happy had never been hurt, my Angel in Blue never would have had to save him and she never would have slipped into this . . . whatever it was. And it had to be something. I refused to believe anything else.

I pushed to my feet and stomped down the stairs. I had work to do.

Cameras flashed and reporters chattered outside the hospital as I pushed my way towards the front where I'd left my car. It was just a normal day in the life for Tony Stark but I wasn’t in the mood to play with the media gremlins today. I hardened my expression and slipped on my sunglasses as I headed out of the building and into the fray. I just had to get to my damn car and then get home. I just had to get home and get everything ready for my Angel’s return.

The second I walked out the doors, swarms of media attacked me. “Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!”

Cameras flashed in my face and my fists clenched at my side.

I ignored all of them as I pushed through the crowd and moved to unlock my car. It was all just buzzing in my ear anyway.

I don’t know if it was fate, or if the lucky reporter just found a lull in the questions being thrown at me by everyone else. But I heard one question loud and clear; “Mr. Stark! When is somebody going to kill this guy?”

I froze.

I turned towards the reporter slowly. Everything in my mind tunneling to one. Single. Point.

“Is that what you want?” 

The man nodded, a sadistic grin on his face that made me want to punch him right in the kisser. These bastards were all the same. They wanted the guts and the glory but they didn’t see the human toll it took. The lives lost . . . the angels left broken. Someone needed to pay. 

And I knew just who it should be.

“I have a little holiday greeting for the Mandarin. I’m not afraid of you. I know you’re a coward. So,  _ I’ve _ decided that you just died pal.” I ripped my sunglasses off my face so I could stare into the tiny camera phone the report was practically shoving into my brain. “On the off chance you’re a man, you’ll come face me yourself. 10880 Malibu Point. I’ll leave the front door unlocked.”

In a fit of rage, I ripped the phone out of the reporter's hand and tossed it against the cement column behind me, shattering it into a million pieces.

“Bill me.” I growled.

Then I hopped in my car and sped away.

Your POV------------------------

“You’ve really messed this one up.” A voice called. 

My eyes flew open and I found myself standing in the middle of the hospital hallway. “I’m . . . sorry?” I asked, spinning around.

A person was leaning casually against an open doorway. 

“I said, you screwed up. You weren’t supposed to do that.”

I swallowed hard as I tried to figure out what was happening. “I . . .”

“That’s right. Piece it together.”

“Happy was hurt.” I murmured, glancing around. “Tony and I came here to see him . . . Tony . . . Tony asked me to help him.”

“Almost got it.”

A dread filled my stomach as I spun around the hospital hallway. Not a single gaze followed me as I had a melt down in the middle of the hospital. “What the hell . . . what the hell . . . what the hell.”

I spun and raced towards the man leaning against the wall. I reached a hand out and hesitantly placed it against his chest. 

There was no heartbeat.

I ripped my hand away and stumbled back a few steps. 

“Where the hell am I?”

“Welcome to the afterlife, sweetheart. Stay awhile.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Duh-duh-DUUUUUUUUUHHHHH.


	11. Separation Anxiety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

I shook my head. “No. No I can’t be here.” I ran my hands through my hair. “I need to get back to Tony. He must be freaking out.”

“Oh. He is. From what I heard, he just invited the Mandarin to a little playdate at your place. But you have bigger problems right now, sweetheart.”

I glanced at the man with narrowed eyes. 

He smirked. 

I shook my head. “I don’t have time for this.” I murmured, turning away from him.

“I’d MAKE time if I were you, sweetheart. Even if you don’t have much of it left.”

I froze. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged. “Just what I said.” He held up his wrist and glanced at the watch. “How long do you think your corpse can last without you in it?”

I swallowed hard. “I . . . I’ve never been to the afterlife before.” I murmured, thinking out loud.

He shook his head slowly. “Normally,” He started in a condescending tone, “Us dead push back on you, keeping you standing in the land of the living. Guess we’ve learned what happens when we decide to go rouge hero all on our own, huh?”

I shook my head angrily and took a step towards him. “What was I supposed to do? Let Happy _die?!”_

The man shrugged. “If that’s what was supposed to happen.”

“No.” I murmured, crossing my arms and backing away. “I’ve let the dead control my life for _years_ . I’ve done _everything_ they’ve asked. I've lost friends. I’ve lost my family. Whole relationships have been thrown out the window because they couldn’t handle the freak that I am and I’ve NEVER asked for anything in return.” I shook my head. “I did what I had to. I don’t regret it.”

The man pushed off the doorway and sauntered towards me. “Well you might want to rethink that, darlin’. ‘Cuz you’re stuck here now and the funny thing about the afterlife is, there is no way back.”

I watched as a handful of EMT’s and a doctor wheeled a bed out of the room that my mystery man had been standing in front of. I felt a chill sweep through me as I glanced down at the body lying on top and saw my own face staring back at me.

I pointed at myself as I was wheeled away. “That . . . that’s . . .”

“That’s you, sweetheart. Like I said. You’ve got bigger problems to worry about.”

I climbed into the back of the ambulance just before it took off, driving away from the hospital. I couldn’t take my eyes off my own face. The whole thing felt so surreal.

“Where are they taking me?” I asked.

The ghost had followed me into the ambulance. He glanced at me before he looked down at my body. “I don’t know.” He murmured, his eyebrows furrowing in concern.

I just turned back to my body and begged myself to stay alive. A sentence I never thought I'd say.

I was surprised when thirty minutes later, the ambulance turned up a driveway I knew so well. “The house?” I mumbled. “Why are they bringing me to the house?”

I stumbled out of the ambulance and raced after my body as I was pushed up the steps and in the front door. Tony was just coming down the stairs as the paramedics rushed me inside. 

“There’s a room down here.” He murmured, leading them down the hall to one of the guest rooms. “Move whatever you need to.”

The paramedics bustled into the room, dragging my unconscious or maybe dead body along with them. Tony stood in the doorway, watching everything with a hardened look in his eye that I desperately needed to soothe away.

“She’ll be okay?” He asked, turning to the doctor standing next him.

She did her best to hide her grimace but couldn’t quite manage it. “I’ll take good care of her, Mr. Stark. You have my word.”

Tony nodded and ran a tired hand over his face. “Yeah. I’ll just . . . I’ll leave you to it? Just . . . ask JARVIS if you need anything.”

“JARVIS?”

“I’m at your service, doctor.” JARVIS answered.

Tony pointed at the ceiling and shot the doctor a weak smile before he turned on his heel and wandered away. My head whipped back and forth as I tried to decide whether I should stay here with myself or go after Tony. Eventually, my heart won out and I chased after him, leaving my strange guru ghost behind.

“Yeah. You go. I’ll stay here.” The man grumbled under his breath.

“Tony!” I called, forgetting for a moment that he wouldn’t be able to hear me. I raced after him. Tony wandered straight to the lab, just as I knew he would. He sat down, hard, at his desk before he pushed back and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the counter behind him. He didn’t even bother with a tumbler as he took a swig straight from the bottle. 

“No, baby, no.” I mumbled, my fingers itching to reach out and rip the bottle from him. “I’m going to be okay. Please, you have to hear me. I’ll be okay, Tony. I will. I’ll come back to you. I’ll . . . I’ll figure this out.”

Tony didn’t even glance up as I desperately tried to communicate with him.

He set the bottle on the table and leaned forward, rubbing his face with his hands. He swiped up on the computer and a picture of the two of us appeared on screen. My voice caught in my throat and if I was capable of crying as a ghost, I would have. I didn’t know he had one.

“I can’t do this, honey.” Tony mumbled, staring at the picture. “I don’t think I can do this without you.” His hands shook as he reached out to stroke my face. “You’re the angel that keeps me grounded.” Tears trickled down his face and my heart broke for him.

“No, baby.” I murmured.

Tony gave himself a minute to grieve before he shook himself out of his stupor and did what he always did. He got to work. “J. I need some scans. Let’s see what we’re working with.”

“Right away, sir.” JARVIS answered.

Tony pushed away from his desk and rolled towards the center of the room where a 3D rendering of my body started forming. Tony reached for the head and zoomed in, delving deep into my brain. I waited, anxiously, for his thoughts.

Just when I thought we’d be standing in silence forever, DUM-E knocked over a dozen paint cans and they crashed to the floor. I jumped.

“Did you see that?” Tony demanded.

“There appeared to be an electrical discharge.” JARVIS noted. “Faint, but recognizable.”

My eyes went wide. I was still connected! I glanced around desperately, trying to find something to help me send another message through my brain. But . . . DAMMIT. I couldn’t interact with anything! I pinched the bridge of my nose before an idea occurred to me. I reached down and clawed at my arm, wincing in pain.

Another electrical surge shot through the image of my brain and Tony grinned. “She’s in there, J. She’s in there.” He paused a minute and then glanced around the lab. “I don’t know if you can hear me, honey. But I’m coming for you. You got that? Just hold on for me. I am coming.”

A bittersweet smile crossed my face as I left him to his work and wandered back to myself. “I know you’ll try, baby.” I murmured.

Tony's POV -----------------------

I was working the math on a vague idea I had when I heard the door to the lab open. I glanced up and froze. I felt like I was seeing a ghost.

“Hey, boss.” Happy murmured, walking in the door.

He had a few scrapes across his face still. There was a dark bruise covering most of his body, but beside that Happy looked as good as new.

I swallowed hard. She’d really done it. She’d saved him.

“Hogan.” I nodded at him. I almost wanted to hug him, but I held back. 

Happy shifted awkwardly in the doorway. “I heard that I was part of a miracle today.” He started.

I crossed my arms and leaned away from my table. “Yeah?”

“The nurses said that you and your angel stopped by and the next thing they knew, I was healed. That’s crazy, right?”

I shook my head slowly. “I’ve been telling you for months now, Hap, she’s an angel.”

Happy pushed the rest of the way into the lab and let the door shut behind him. “This is insane, boss. No offense. People can’t just _heal_ other people like that.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “And people can’t just turn into giant green rage monsters or survive being frozen at the bottom of the ocean for seventy years. The world’s changing. Who’s to say what’s not possible anymore.”

Happy stumbled back a step as though I’d slapped him. “So she did it, huh? She brought me back from the dead?”

I swallowed hard before I turned back to my designs. ‘Yeah. But she lost herself in the process.’ I thought.

Happy shook his head. “Well, where is she? I should thank her. What do you even get for someone who saved your life? Flowers don't seem right.”

“She’s in the guest room just off the living room.” I said, my fingers starting to tremble.

“What’s she doing there? I thought you’d moved all her stuff into the master bedroom months ago.”

I curled my shaking fingers into fists and leaned against the table. “She’s . . .” I sighed and wondered how I could explain it. How could I even begin to explain what was happening to her? “She’s in a coma. I had the EMT’s set her up in there so the doc I hired could have easy access to her.”

Happy gapped at me. “She’s . . . because of _me_? Oh, shit, boss. I’m . . . I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “Don’t be sorry, Happy. She loves you. She would have done it no matter what I’d said.” And that was something I just needed to hold on to. It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t Happy’s fault.

It was the Mandarin’s fault. And I was going to get him.

I pointed at my desk. “Run those numbers, JARVIS.” I ordered.

“Right away, sir.”

I moved towards Happy and gestured towards a holographic mock up of the scene of Happy’s accident I’d had JARVIS pull up earlier. “I need you to walk me through this, Happy.” I said. Because something’s not adding up.”

Happy nodded quickly. “Sure thing, boss. Anything to help.”

He wandered around the set up for a minute before he stopped in front of the burnt remains of some kind of vendor booth. “So, I told you earlier about that shady fellow, the one at Pepper’s office?”

I nodded.

Happy continued. “I know you said to leave it alone, but his bodyguard was giving me the creeps. Something about him just didn’t sit right with me and I didn’t become head of security by ignoring my gut feelings. By the way, did Pepper tell you complaints are up 300%? I must be doing my job.”

“Very happy for you, Hogan. But the guy? What was so fishy about him?”

“Right. Well, that’s the thing, I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I followed him.”

My eyebrows furrowed as I glanced around the scene. “He went to the theatre?” That was an awfully big coincidence if it was _only_ a coincidence.

Happy nodded. “I was standing right here, blending in. He didn’t suspect me for a second.”

“What did he do?”

“So there was this guy, right? He was sitting right here.” Happy wandered over to the spot I’d already isolated as ground zero for the explosion. I perked up.

“The guy looked like hell. Total junkie.”

“Your guy? Or the guy he was meeting?”

“The guy he was meeting. So my guy, he sets this briefcase down next to the junkie. Total hand off. They talked for a few minutes, though I wasn’t close enough to hear what they said.”

“Then what happened?”

“Well my guy walked away like nothing was wrong. So, I thought to myself; ‘let’s go see what’s going on over there’, right?”

I nodded.

“I made my way over and knocked into the junkie. His fancy new briefcase went spilling all over the place and I was ‘helping’ him pick everything up when I glanced at him and . . . boss, listen, I know this is going to make me sound crazy . . .”

“Try me, Happy.”

“He was . . . glowing.”

“Glowing?”

“Yeah. Like . . . like there was lava under his skin or something. I got a real bad feeling so I just sort of walked away, but I managed to snag a piece of whatever he’d been given. Thought I’d bring it here to see what you made of it.”

I pushed up from the table I’d been leaning on. “You still have it?”

“Do I still have what?”

“The thing? The thing you grabbed?”

“Oh. No. My guy grabbed it off of me.”

“He came back?”

Happy nodded. “Oh yeah. He came back. Boss, guy threw me through a cart. Threw me halfway across the courtyard.”

I shook my head as I struggled to piece everything together because nothing was making sense. “That’s . . . improbable.”

Happy nodded. “That’s not all. I got a few hits in myself first and he started glowing too.”

I let out a breath.

“Okay. Okay . . . and the explosion?”

“It was the craziest thing. See my guy’s glow faded after a few seconds but the junkie? His glow just got bigger and bigger. I dove behind the kiosk over there but I swear boss, it wasn’t a bomb that went off. It was him.”

“JARVIS? We have anything else in the database matching this? I’m talking same temperatures, same shadow’s on the walls, the whole shebang.”

JARVIS hummed and threw up a map of the USA with dozens of dots on it. He started eliminating potential correlations until only a single plot point remained. “Rose Hill, Tennessee. A Mr. Chad Davis. US military. It predates any claimed Mandarin attack.”

“That can’t be a coincidence.” I murmured. 

“What are you thinking, boss?” Happy asked.

“Why’s the Mandarin claiming attacks he had nothing to do with? Unless . . . unless he’s been a part of it from the beginning. What if . . . what if the Mandarin is supplying whatever it was you saw in that briefcase? Somehow it’s changing people’s physiology. Turning _them_ into bombs.”

“That’s . . .” Happy let out a breath of air. “That’s . . . something else.” He murmured.

I nodded as the two of us glanced over everything JARVIS was pulling up on screen. Something still wasn’t adding up for me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, sir, but Doctor Chavez is requesting your presence upstairs.”

I nodded. “Tell her I’ll be right there.”

I sent one last look at Chad Davis’ information. “Plot a course, there, will you, J? I think we need to have a little chat with Mrs. Davis.”

“Right away sir.”

I nodded and headed up the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony's on the case! And she's not all that "brain dead" after all! Yay.
> 
> It's basically fixed now, right? Job well done. XD
> 
> Soooo? What are you thinking??? I gots to know!!!


	12. This Time It's Personal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

“The machines are all set up. For now, all we can do is observe.” Dr. Chavez said, glancing in the room at my Angel in Blue who looked so fragile and pale lying in the bed. The doctor turned to me. “If there’s any change in her vitals, call me.”

“You’re not sticking around?”

She shook her head. “Right now, there’s more I can do outside of the house. I have a few colleagues I can get a hold of and there’s a few experimental drugs I’ve heard of. We might have success with one of them, but I want to look into them myself.”

“Experimental, huh?”

Dr. Chavez nodded. “The preliminary tests have been very promising. Especially for the drug Extremis.”

“Never heard of it.”

She nodded. “It’s not available to the public yet. But again, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks, doc.” I murmured, escorting her to the door. She nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Stark. I appreciate this opportunity more than you know.”

I waved her off. “As long as we’re in agreement about treatments, this could be a beautiful partnership.”

Dr. Chavez nodded and slipped out the front door and into her waiting car. I shut the door behind her and wandered back to Angel’s room.

Happy was standing just inside the doorway, looking down at her with a worried expression on his face.

“It’s not your fault, Happy.” I reminded him.

“Course, boss. Still though . . .”

I shook my head. “JARVIS is running numbers now on a few ideas I have. We’re not giving up. Besides, haven’t you been teaching her self-defense? You of all people should know that she’s a fighter.”

Happy chuckled. “She could take you in a fight. That’s for sure. No offense, boss.”

The doorbell rang.

I threw my hands up in the air and glanced at the security screen that JARVIS popped up next to my head. “Really, J? Are we still at ding-dong? We’re supposed to be on total security lock down. Come on, I threatened a terrorist!”

“Sorry, sir. You gave the world your address. There’s only so much I can do.”

I grumbled under my breath and squinted at the screen. “Who is this? You know what, nevermind.” 

I leaned down and pressed a kiss against my Angel’s head. “I’ll be right back, honey.” I murmured, brushing a thumb against her temple. “Keep fighting for me.”

I smiled down at her sadly and then I turned and walked out of the room, Happy following behind.

“Get me a suit JARVIS.”

“It’s already here, sir.” JARVIS murmured.

I stepped into the suit as it walked up to me. “Great. Let her in.”

“Boss, I really don’t think . . .”

“It’s fine, Happy.”

Happy grumbled behind me and reached for the gun at his hip. Inside the suit, I rolled my eyes.

JARVIS opened the front door and a woman walked in. 

“Right there is fine.” I murmured, stopping her in her tracks.

I glanced her up and down. She seemed familiar somehow. “You’re not the Mandarin.” I said.

“You don’t remember.”

“Don’t take it personally. I don’t remember what I had for breakfast.”

“You missed breakfast this morning.” JARVIS chimed in.

I pointed at the ceiling. “That’s right.” I stepped out of the suit and ignored the huff of annoyance Happy made behind me. “

The woman bounced on her toes nervously. “Look. I need to be alone with you somewhere . . . not here.”

“Is that a pickup line, sweetheart? Because if so, sorry, but I’m already taken.”

“Look,” Happy interrupted, frustratedly. “Who are you? Boss, who is this? I don’t like this security breech.”

“Relax, Happy. It’s just Maya. Old botanist pal.”

Maya smiled over at Happy who just pointed his gun more firmly at her.

“Right.” She said. “Look. We don’t have a lot of time and I need your help.”

“Right. On what again?” I asked, moving towards the bar. 

“I’d be happy to tell you . . . over coffee . . . somewhere safe.”

“Did you miss the part where I said I’m in a committed relationship?” I sassed. I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with her right now. I needed to get back down to the lab and figure out what was keeping my Angel locked up and what the Mandarin was doing to his victims.

“Look . . . I’m just here for a little help, okay? Then I’ll get out of your hair and you can get back to your little ‘happily ever after’ except, oh wait, you  _ threatened a terrorist. _ You’re not going to last a week on your own.”

“Uh . . . guys?” Happy interrupted.

I scoffed. “I’m Iron Man. The house is safer than Fort Knox. No one’s getting inside.”

Maya rolled her eyes. “I did.”

“Boss . . .”

I pointed a finger at her but my argument died on my lips. “You’ll be the only one. Isn’t that right, JARVIS?”

“Tony!”

“What?!” I spun around to glance at Happy just in time to see him lunge for me, tackling me to the ground.

A split second later, something exploded overhead, raining debris down around us. My eyes went wide and a sudden clarity hit me just as it always did when I found myself in the middle of a fight for my life.

But it wasn’t just my life I was fighting for this time. I turned to Happy and pushed him to his feet as I called my suit to me. “Get Maya and get out!” I ordered.

“What about you?!” He demanded.

“I’ll be fine! Go!”

Happy holstered his gun and scrambled for Maya as the suit encased me. “JARVIS, what do we got?”

“Several aircraft have surrounded the house. I’m reading multiple weapon signals.”

“Okay. Okay . . . we need to get Angel and get out of here.”

“Sir . . . she’s currently hooked up to a number of . . .”

Another explosion rocked through the house and I was knocked backwards. I slammed against the wall and groaned as the breath was knocked right out of me. “You were saying?” I asked, pushing to my feet as I scrambled for the hallway.

“She’s attached to several machines she won’t survive without. You can’t unplug her, sir.”

Another two or three rockets were launched into the house and I slammed against the ground as a chunk of concrete separated from the ceiling and pinned me to the floor. I tried blasting it apart with my gauntlet, but the damn thing wouldn’t fire. “I need you to fix the glitches, J!”

Half of the living room gave away and started slipping off the cliffside. “Fix it! Fix it now!”

The blaster fired, blowing the slab of concrete into smaller chunks and I crawled my way out from under it. “JARVIS? Where’s my flight power?!” I yelled, pinwheeling my arms out as I tried to keep my balance. 

“Working on it, sir. This  _ is  _ a prototype.”

Bullets rained down around me as I crawled my way up the sliding concrete. I gripped at the cracked foundation and aimed my wrists at the choppers that were still firing on me. A blinking “weapons offline” message appeared on my HUD and I cursed. I turned my back on them and scrambled up the floor that was now pointing almost vertically straight into the water. I had to get to my Angel. Everything else could wait.

I rammed my fingers into the floor, making finger holds as I went, but I was too caught up in climbing that I missed the piano angling right for my head until it was too late. It crashed into me, knocking my hands away from the concrete holding me in place. I had nothing to grab onto as I fell into the ocean, the rest of the house falling after me.

The water was dirty and I was nearly blind. I was struggling to orient myself when suddenly, something wrapped around me and yanked me further into the water. Panic started clawing at my heart as the suit started leaking. I glanced up and saw the rest of the house falling straight towards me and I grappled with the rebar wrapped around my neck, trying to dodge out of the way. 

I was a fraction of a second too late.

The rest of the house collapsed on top of me, driving me deeper and deeper into the sand at the bottom of the ocean. 

I managed to get my arm free of the debris and frantically tried to push myself out from under the weight of the house as the electronics in the suit began flickering. My breaths were coming in short pants and all I could think about was how I was going to die at the bottom of the ocean.

There’d be no Angel this time.

I’d probably gotten her killed too.

“Sir, take a deep breath.” JARVIS advised.

I didn’t even have a second to ask what he meant before the gauntlet on my free hand disengaged and the suit flooded with water.

I closed my eyes and did my best to put my trust in JARVIS but my lungs were already begging for release by the time I felt the metal gauntlet grip at my bare hand and pull me free.

The glove slipped back onto my wrist and I shot myself into the sky. I was out like a light before we even broke water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is she dead? Is Tony dead?
> 
> Noooobooodddyyy knooooooows.
> 
> Till next chapter. XD


	13. That's All I Know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It feels mean to leave it on that last chapter. So, here's a bonus one! XD
> 
> Enjoy.

Happy scrambled towards the wreckage of the house calling for you both. “Tony! Angel! Tony! Angel?”

Happy raced to the edge of the house and stared into the bubbling water. There was a sinking feeling in his gut. “Shit.” He mumbled.

He turned around, glancing at all the destruction that surrounded him. “ANGEL!” 

He scrambled towards the hallway that led to the room you’d been placed in. Somehow the walls were still in place. Happy shoved debris out of his way as he scrambled for the door and prayed that you were somehow still alive.

He threw the door open and glanced inside. A long drawn out beep greeted his ears. His hand slipped from the doorknob as he took a few steps inside. A you shaped indent in the bed was all that was left to indicate you’d ever been here at all.

You were just . . . gone.

Happy swallowed hard and slowly turned his eyes towards the heavens. “Angel?” He asked.

Your POV----------------------

I gasped and stumbled to a stop as a tha-thump beat in my chest.

My strange ghostly guide started at me with a quirked brow. “You alright, sweetheart?”

I shook my head and gasped for air as that tha-thump pounded again. 

His eyes narrowed in concern as he stepped towards me. He reached out a hand and placed it against my chest. Or he tried to. The second he came close to touching me, something slammed into between the two of us, knocking him back a few steps. His eyes widened.

My heart beat again.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

The man cocked his head and stepped towards me, glancing at me curiously as I struggled to adjust to suddenly having a beating heart again.

An eerie grin lit up his face. “Well, sweetheart. Looks like you’re in luck. You might just have a ticket out of this hellhole after all.”

Tony’s POV-------------------

An alarm was sounding in my ear. 

“Sir!”

I shook my head as my eyes fluttered open. “Alright. Alright. Kill the alarm. I got it.”

“That’s the emergency alert triggered by the power dropping below 5%”

I glanced around. When had I gotten in the suit? Flickers of images flashed through my head. “Oh. Oh!”

My eyes widened as I watched myself fall out of the sky and straight for a car on a lonesome road. I screamed as I tried to fire thrusters, but there wasn’t enough power in the reserves to give me anything.

I slammed against the road and bounced into the forest like a lost volleyball. My velocity was enough to slam me through several trees before I slid to a stop in the middle of an empty clearing.

I groaned as I rolled onto my back. I stared up at the night sky as snow fell on me. Sparks flew off the suit as I struggled to catch my breath and remember what my life had come to. I reached up and pulled my face mask off, hissing as the cold winter air licked at my bleeding face.

“Snow?” I struggled to place my surroundings. There wasn't any snow in California . . . was there? “Are we upstate?”

“We are five miles outside of Rose Hill, Tennessee."

Panic shot through me. “What? Why? No! JARVIS! Not my idea!” I needed to get back home! I needed to make sure Angel was okay! “What are we doing here?! This is thousands of miles away! I gotta get Angel! I gotta get her to safety! This wasn’t . . .” I trailed off as various pieces clicked into place. “I had you prepare a flight plan.”

“This was the location.” JARVIS agreed.

“Who asked you?!” I demanded. I shook my head and felt a burning need to get out and pace around a little. I had too much nervous energy gripping at my heart. This hadn’t been the plan. Not while Angel was out of commission. I needed . . . I needed . . . “Open the suit, JARVIS! Now!”

The plates shifted but didn’t open. “I seem to be malfunctioning, sir.” JARVIS apologized.

“Open it!”

The plates shifted open and I was suddenly hit by the below freezing temperature. “That is BRISK.” I murmured, pushing off the suit and to my feet. 

“J, I need you to get a message . . .”

“Actually sir . . . I think . . . I think I need to power down for a moment.”

“No. I . . .”

“Goodnight, sir.”

“JARVIS? JARVIS?!”

The sound of the suit powering down echoed around me. 

“Please don’t leave me, buddy.”

The sound of the bitter wind echoing through the trees was all I was left with.

I sank to my knees and let the day wash over me. More than anything, I wanted to curl in a ball and wake up, my angel next to me in bed, sunlight streaming through our windows, our whole futures ahead of us. But we couldn’t do that. I’d made sure of that.

I turned to the suit and started pulling on the emergency chute straps so I could fashion some kind of rope to drag the suit behind me. Like HELL was I leaving it here. I just needed some tools and some power and I could have it up and running in no time.

Yeah. No time at all.

Then I could fly back home. Find Angel, make sure Happy was still alive. Get them both to safety and then take out the Mandarin with all the firepower I had.

I could do this.

I knelt in the frozen forest, water seeping into my pants and I tried to ignore the voice growing louder in the back of my head that sounded an awful lot like Howard Stark. ‘You can’t do this. You never could.’

It was a welcome sight when I finally trudged through the last of the trees and saw a glowing Texaco light that signaled I’d finally found civilization. I dropped the ropes and the suit crumpled behind me as I moved towards the drugstore wooden Indian and stole its poncho. If I hadn’t been freezing to death, I might have felt more guilty. I shrugged it on and tried to ignore the musty, smokey smell.

Beggars couldn’t be choosers.

I spotted a payphone and gratefully made my way to it. I typed in the security code to access my systems and waited.

“Stark secure server. Now transferring to all known receivers.”

The tone clicked as I was transferred and suddenly, Angel’s voice was on the line. “Hi, Tony. If you’re calling the emergency line, you must be in deep shit. I knew it would happen eventually. I assume that means I’m not there to pull you out of it too. Well, figure out a way to get back to me, baby, because wherever I am, I’ll be missing you. You may not know this, mister. But I love you. I’ll be waiting for you. Come home to me.” There was a beep as the servers started recording.

I smiled softly and rubbed a hand over my eyes where tears were threatening to spill over. “Hi, Angel.” I breathed on the line. “So you found my emergency line, huh? I should have known you would. And you’re right, honey. You’re so right. I’m in trouble and I think I might have dragged you into it too. I don’t know where you are, or even if you’re alright. I’m just . . . I’m praying for a miracle, honey, and I really need you to work your magic and get it to me because I need you. I . . . I can’t do this without you. I just can’t. I’ve tried being strong enough but I’m not. Not for this.”

I sighed and banged my head lightly against the metal box as I realized my time was running out. “I’m coming home, honey. I promise you that. But, I can’t just yet. I messed up. There’s so much I need to apologize for and I will. When I see you again. But you won’t be safe until I finish this and you need to be safe. That’s all I know.”

I glanced out at the falling snow and said my goodbyes. “If you . . . if you wake up before I get home . . . I’ll see you soon. If not . . . keep fighting for me, honey. I love you.”

I stared at the phone in my hand and forced myself to hang it up.

It was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do.

Then I pushed out of the phone booth and picked the straps of the suit up again. “Come on, buddy. Let’s finish this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always loved the scene where Tony wakes up in Tennessee and immediately starts freaking out because they left Pepper behind. 
> 
> He may have messed up, but he's only ever wanted to keep her safe. Awww.
> 
> On that note; anyone have any theories? What's happening to Angel?


	14. The Golden Ticket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> YOUR POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Tosses this chapter in your face* DISTRACTION.
> 
> On a more serious note, this one goes out to everyone who knew there was something not quite right about this guy. XD

I paced around nervously. “Hoss . . . can I call you Hoss?” I asked, glancing at the man who was still watching me in that eerily attentive way of his. 

“No.”

“Well you haven’t told me your actual name and you seem like a ‘Hoss’, so, Hoss; I gotta say, I’m freaking out a little bit.”

Hoss nodded slowly. “I can see that sweetheart.”

I glanced around the room and moved to pick up the rock. Just like last time, it shook as though an earthquake was rolling underneath it but my hand still passed right through it. I hissed at the freezing sensation and yanked my hand back.

“You gonna stop doing that?” Hoss drawled.

I glared at him as I rubbed at my fingers and then resumed pacing around the destroyed remains of the entryway to the house.

“I got my body back.” I murmured, pressing my hand over my chest where my heart was still beating. “It’s back. The heart’s still pumping the lungs are still breathing. I’m, ugh, I’m _sweating_. So, what the hell, man? Why am I still here? Why can I still hear you?”

“Tired of me so soon, sweetheart?”

I ignored him as I ran a frazzled hand through my hair. “This shouldn’t be happening.”

“I agree.” Hoss said, kicking off the wall where he’d been casually leaning. “Which is why it’s so damn interesting." He stepped towards me and squinted. “What the hell are you?”

I leaned away from him as his eyes slowly ran over me from head to toe. I tried not to shiver in disgust. 

“I want to find Tony.” I said abruptly. I rubbed at my chest where my piece was missing. I could _feel_ Tony’s panic. He needed me.

“You get the golden ticket outta limbo and the first thing you want to do is find your _boyfriend?_ ” Hoss sneered.

I shot a disgusted look in his direction. “Doesn’t seem like I got a ticket out of _anywhere_ .” I growled. “Seeing as I’m still stuck _here_ with _you.”_

Hoss shook his head and finally took a step back. He crossed his arms over his chest. “You still don’t get it, do you, sweetheart?”

I glared at him.

He rolled his eyes. He jabbed a finger in my direction. “Limbo’s for the _dead_ and the _dying_. You don’t fit either of those bills anymore.”

“So why am I still here?!” I demanded.

Hoss shook his head and thought about it for a minute. “Maybe . . .” He sighed. “Maybe you have to hitch a ride out of here just like you hitched a ride in.”

“What does THAT mean?”

He sighed in exasperation and for a minute I wished I hadn’t gotten my body back just so I could punch him in his smug little kisser.

“It _means_ you got here when you pulled someone out when you didn’t have anyone pushing you to stay topside. It _means_ , little princess, that if you want out, you need to find someone who’s here before their time and break them out. Then, maybe, _just maybe_ , you’ll find your own way out too.”

“That’s a whole lot of maybe, _Hoss._ ” I grumbled. “I thought you dead always saw the bigger picture.”

Hoss shrugged nonchalantly. “We do. Course it helps when people play their parts and don’t go rogue hero.”

“He is my _friend._ I’d do it again.”

Hoss took two long strides and stood toe to toe with me, glowering down with as much force as he could manage. “That’s a dangerous way to live, _sweetheart._ ” He growled. “You play a much bigger role in this thing than you could possibly imagine. Thinking like that is selfish and will get us all killed.”

There was a venom in his voice that took me aback and I suddenly got the very distinct impression that Hoss was just another pawn in a very big game of chess being played by players much bigger than either of us. A sense of dread filled me as he seemed to realize that he’d said too much and took a step back.

“What’s coming for us?” I asked quietly, staring him down. 

Hoss shook his head and let out a deep sigh. He rubbed a hand down his face before he looked at me. “You’re not dead, sweetheart. Not anymore. It’s not time for you to know yet.”

I nodded slowly and swallowed hard. “But Tony’s going to be right in the middle of it, isn’t he?”

Hoss stared at me blankly but I supposed I had my answer.

I nodded and glanced away as tears prickled at my eyes. I glanced around the destroyed remains of my home and let that truth sink in. Something was coming. Something big. Something worse than _this._ And Tony was going to be right in the middle of it. 

There was an ache in my heart as I realized that whatever was coming, I wasn't going to be able to protect him from it.

“I wondered why the dead were so fascinated by him.”

Hoss didn’t say anything but I saw the question in his eyes anyway.

I shrugged a shoulder. “I was never in control of my life until Tony brought me here. I haven’t been dragged around to save anyone since Tony found me. Not to mention, they follow him around like lost little puppies half the time. He has more guardian angels than anyone I’ve ever seen. Guess I know why, now.”

Hoss shook his head and glanced at me sadly. “You don’t know anything, sweetheart and trust me, you don’t want to know.”

I glanced at him and saw, for the first time, the way the weight of the world seemed to rest on his shoulders. They said that death was supposed to be peaceful.

They were wrong.

I nodded to myself as I thought. Hoss waited patiently in the corner and I realized that he’d been sent to me as some kind of reluctant guide through all this. For some reason, though, he was being left in the dark just as much as I was about our next steps which meant that I had a little leeway to follow my own heart. And my heart? It was pulling me straight for my missing piece.

“Alright.” I said, slapping my palms against my thighs.

“Alright?” Hoss asked quietly, his eyes narrowing suspiciously on me.

I nodded and gestured over my shoulder where the teams of firemen and shield agents were just beginning to pull up. “Let’s go.”

Hoss was openly glaring at me. “Where to?” He asked.

I smiled sweetly. “The dead want Tony so bad? Let’s go get him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're going to CANDY MOUNTAIN, Charlie!


	15. Pop Quiz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting those much needed answers out of your reluctant partner.

I put one foot in front of another as I continued trudging in the direction I could feel my missing piece pulsing from. It had already been three hours and I still wasn’t showing any signs of exhaustion. Being mostly undead had its advantages.

Hoss walked beside me, annoyingly and suspiciously silent. I didn’t trust it for a second.

“Why are you coming with me?” I asked out of the blue, casting him a suspicious side eye.

Hoss shrugged. “Someone has to. Who knows what mayhem you’d cause if you were left unsupervised. You’ve caused enough ripples in this world as it is. I’m not sure we’d survive anymore of your ‘solo help.’”

I turned a thoughtful gaze in his direction. He narrowed his eyes on me. “The powers that be don’t want me to be alone.” I observed. “Interesting.”

“I never said that, you blasted woman.”

I shrugged. “I’m learning to read between the lines. Seems like a skill I’m going to need if you and I are going to spend a lot of time together. Doesn’t it?”

Hoss glowered, but bit his tongue.

I smiled.

“So, let’s see what else we can’t figure out, since we’re becoming such pals. Shall we?”

He looked like he wished he could be anywhere else right now.

I smirked as I looked forward and started in on my questions. “Okay so, first question. What am I?”

Hoss sighed, a deep, ‘this is my hell’ kind of sigh. “I don’t know.”

I nodded. “Would you tell me if you did?”

He was silent.

I nodded again and pushed that one to the backburner for now. “You can see the big picture. Do you know how all this is going to end?”

He glanced to the left, but nodded curtly. 

“Is there any way we can avoid whatever’s coming?”

He thought for a minute, his eyes glazing over as though he was looking at something I couldn’t quite see. Eventually he sighed and shook his head. “And before you ask . . . most of us wouldn’t ask this of you or Tony if we had any other choice.”

“That bad, huh?”

He fell silent again and the sinking feeling in my gut grew. 

How did someone move on with life when they knew what was coming? I wasn’t kidding about learning to read between the lines with him. And right now? Those inbetweens were saying that I wasn’t likely to die of old age.

I cleared my throat and pushed back my shoulders. That was alright. I’d made my peace with my death a long time ago. Maybe it was because the dead had surrounded me for as long as I could remember. Who knew? I’d be fine though. I always was.

It was Tony I worried about. Speaking of . . . 

My voice was nearly a whisper and tears prickled at my eyes as I spoke next. “Was I always meant to fall in love with him?”

Hoss shot me a look that I couldn’t quite interpret. It felt like it bordered on pity though. “Tony Stark and his Angel in Blue. A love story for the ages. A trillion to one odds that no one saw coming.” He said softly. “You were always meant to save his life. But you and he forged your own destiny after that. If you’re asking if he really loves you; he does. With his whole being. We had no part in that.”

Something settled in my soul and a sense of relief filled my chest. I closed my eyes and let out a breath.

“His love for you is dangerous.” Hoss continued. My eyes flew open and I turned to look at him again. “As is your love for him. The two of you would do anything to keep the other safe.” Hoss turned to me and we came to a stop in the middle of nowhere. “You both have a destiny to fulfill. In the coming days you will both be asked to sacrifice more than anyone should have to. The weight of the world is on your shoulders,  _ Angel _ . If it comes to it, you need to let him go so the rest of them can survive.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I choked out.

Hoss smiled sadly. “Like I said, you’re going to be asked to sacrifice. We need you to know what is at stake if you fail.”

I glanced behind him as hundreds of dead slowly faded into view. All of them wore pitying looks on their faces, but I also saw the hope they were placing in me. It was almost more than I could bear. 

I squeezed my eyes shut and nodded.

The other ghosts faded away, back to the paths they were meant to be traveling and Hoss gestured forward again. “Come.” He said softly.

I turned and followed him. “Just promise me one thing.” I begged softly.

Hoss glanced at me.

“Promise me that no matter what happens . . . Tony and I do it together.”

He gave me that same tragic smile, but he gave me a curt nod.

I turned forward and squared my shoulders. As long as we could be together. I could make it right.

Hours, or maybe it was days later, Hoss came to a stop.

I glanced around us at the dingy boatyard and cocked my head. “Where are we?”

“Exactly where we need to be.”

I opened my mouth to question him but my missing piece flared and I whipped my head around. “Tony.” I breathed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. So it'll come up later, but just for clarifications sake right here in case you didn't pick it up earlier; Time moves more slowly when Angel's in the afterlife or interacting with afterlife than it does for the rest of the world. This conversation and their travel actually spans several days in Tony's time. 
> 
> Okay. Carry on. XD


	16. The Real Mandarin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

My head was positively KILLING me and that annoying tapping sound I could have done without. 

I groaned as I opened my eyes. I was . . . yup. I was ziptied to a bed frame. That couldn’t be good. I glanced around the dingy . . . wherever I was and tried to figure out my next move.

My eyes met Maya’s and I sighed at the damn luck I was having.

“Just like old times, huh?” She asked with a smug little smirk on her face.

I yanked on the zip ties, testing for give as I formulated a response. “Oh yeah. How about you come over here and untie me and we can really recreate the magic.”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t my idea.”

I scoffed. It had taken a minute, back at the house, I’d give her that. But I remembered what she’d been like before. So full of hope for the future. So ready to get out there and make a difference. I wondered when she’d thrown all THAT away. Oh wait . . .

“Right. So you took Killian’s card and that  _ big _ payday I’m sure you have waiting . . . and here you are. It’s been what? Thirteen years? And you’re here, with me, in a dungeon.”

“No.” She argued.

“Uh, yeah.” I argued back. 

“No.” She said more firmly. “ _ You’re _ in a dungeon. I’m free to go.”

“Yeah?” I asked, turning my attention away from her to look at the zip ties and more importantly, how they were keeping me tied to the bedframe.

“Look, Tony. A lot has happened. EXTREMIS is almost stabilized."

I shot her a look. “I’m telling you, it’s not. I’ve been on the streets. I’ve seen the evidence. People are going bang. They’re painting the walls. Maya, you’re kidding yourself.”

“Then help me fix it!” She pleaded, holding up a faded and worn name tag. In the haziest parts of my mind, I vaguely remembered filling it out.

She waited until she saw the recognition click in my head and then she flipped it over. I glanced at the math on the back, all written in my handwriting and swallowed hard. It was the start of Extremis. All these people . . . it was all my fault.

“Did I do that?” I asked, trying to brush it off and maybe cover my guilt.

Tears filled her eyes. “Yes.”

“I remember the night. Not the next morning.” I paused. “Is this really what you’ve been chasing? ‘Cuz if so, you’re plum out of luck.”

“You really don’t remember?” Her voice broke and I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

“I can’t help you.”

She took a few steps back, shaking her head in disbelief. 

“You know, you used to have a moral code. You used to want to help people. Now look at you.”

She looked taken aback and maybe even a little hurt, but I wasn’t done.

I thought of my Angel and how I’d left her, alone, with a doctor who was thinking about injecting this absolute  _ poison  _ into her system. The world thought this was some great cure and it wasn’t. How could Maya not see that?

“I get to wake up every morning with someone who still has a soul. Someone who would do anything and risk everything to help someone else. And I need to get back to her. Get me out of these.”

Tears streamed down her face, but she shook her head and backed away as another voice sounded in the doorway. “You know what my father always said to me? A favorite saying of his. ‘The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.’” Aldrich Killian sauntered into the room.

My heart skipped a beat but I kept a calm face on. “You’re not still pissed about the Switzerland thing, are you?” I asked.

He chuckled as he set a case down on the table. “How could I be pissed, Tony?” He stepped towards me and tucked his hands in his pockets. “That night changed my life. If anything, I should be thanking you.”

I rolled my eyes. It was going to be a villain monologue, then, was it? I think I would have preferred torture. At least I knew what to expect with that.

Killian leaned in close and I leaned as far back as I could to avoid him. “You gave me the greatest gift anyone ever could . . . desperation.”

He finally took a step back and I sucked in a breath and tugged at my restraints again. I needed to get the hell out of here. 

“See, back in Switzerland, you told me you were going to meet me up on the roof. For the first twenty minutes, I actually thought you might show. And then, well, then I started thinking about taking a one way trip straight downstairs if you know what I mean.”

I huffed.

Killian laughed. “But, see, the craziest thing happened while I was up there. As I stared out at the city, no one knew I was up there. No one could see me. No one cared. And I had the idea that would full me for years to come.” He leaned in close again. “Annonymity.”

He smiled that sadistic little grin of his and he backed away so he could start pacing around the room. “It’s become my mantra ever since. You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face . . . you hand them a target.”

“You’re insane.”

He shrugged as he moved to his briefcase. “Other geniuses have been called the same.”

I scoffed. “Okay, and what comes next in your new world, professor?”

Killian smiled at me. “Well, I’m glad you asked. I want to repay the self-same gift you so generously gave to me.” 

He held up his fist before he leaned down and rolled three silver balls towards me.

The landed in a perfect triangle at my feet and a holographic image popped up. Pepper was strapped to a table, her skin glowing with the Extremis pumping through her veins.

I jolted against my bindings. Not Pepp too.

Killian grinned again. “Now, I feel like I have to explain myself here.” He said, apologetically. “Ms. Potts wasn’t the original end goal. She was more of a half-time desperation. I apologize for that. See, originally, I wanted to get my hands on that perfect little angel of yours. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that . . .” He shook his head and my heart stopped beating. “She, oh so tragically, didn’t survive the destruction of your house. Isn’t that right, Maya?”

My eyes shot to Maya who ducked her head.

I stopped breathing. 

No.

“I want to promise you that my orders were to keep her alive. As an incentive. For you, actually. And don’t you worry. The idiots who killed her, they’ve been dealt with. But . . . it did leave us with a little bit of a problem, now, didn’t it? Because what else do you offer the man who has everything if not the woman he loves?” Killian glanced at Maya and chuckled. “Well, I guess you offer him the woman he  _ used _ to love. Because those feelings just don’t . . .  _ go away _ now do they? And besides, she's an innocent. You do seem to love saving those.”

I yanked on my bindings again, a desperate need to murder this man washing through me. I wanted to gouge out his eyes. I wanted to make him bleed. I wanted him to  _ suffer _ . He was going to wish he’d taken the leap in Switzerland by the time I was done with him because my Angel in Blue had been the last tie to any sense of consciousness I had left. And if she was dead, so was the only thing keeping him alive.

“Anyway, I don’t know if you can tell but at this moment, in real time, her body is trying to decide if it wants to accept Extremis or not. And well, I’m told that if it doesn’t, the results can be rather . . . explosive.”

It felt like there was something trying to claw its way out of my chest. The pain was a physical burning ache against my soul because I KNEW, I finally KNEW that it had never been the Mandarin or, or Killian. It had always been me. It was MY fault she was dead. It was MY fault she suffered. I’d only ever wanted to protect her . . .

Killian stepped up to me and wrapped his hand around my neck. His skin glowed with Extremis and black spots started appearing in my vision. For a dark moment, I HOPED he’d just end it because I’d rather be wherever came next with my Angel than here for a SECOND without her when it was all my fault. 

But the release never came.

“Let him go!”

Killian’s hand loosened just enough that I could instinctively suck in that much needed O2. 

Killian and I both glanced over to see Maya holding a syringe against her throat. Killian released me and turned to face her fully. “What are you doing?”

Maya’s bottom lip trembled. “Twelve-hundred CC’s. A dose half this size and I’m dead.”

Killian chuckled and took a step towards her. “Maya, give me the syringe.”

Maya scoffed and took a trembling step backwards. “If I die, what happens to your little soldiers, huh? What happens to your product?”

“We’re not doing this.”

“What happens to you? Huh? If you get too hot? What then?”

Their conversation was a fly on the wall. I couldn’t care less about the buzzing. I tried to. I did. Maya had found her soul. But I couldn’t focus because my mind was a million miles away, focused on  _ her _ face and the last words I ever said to  _ her.  _ ‘Save him’. I’d begged when I should have been begging her to save herself because I? I was just as bad as the poison Maya had made.

A gunshot rang through the air and my eyes flicked up just in time to see Maya’s shocked expression as she dropped to the ground, a bullet hole straight through her heart.

Killian turned back to me and smiled. “You’re in luck. A high level position just opened up.”

He tucked his gun back into his dress slacks like some kind of 40’s mobster and then he climbed the steps and headed away. “I’ll give you some time to think it over!” He called. “I’m sure you’ll make the right choice.”

I had to agree with him there. I would make the right choice this time. And it would end with him in his grave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pepper's were harmed in the making of this chapter.
> 
> Tony and Pepper are broken up. But he still cares about her. Always will. He's got too big of a heart not to.


	17. It Doesn't Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

Men wandered into the room and smirked as they glanced at me. I was sure I looked hilarious, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, but I’d be fine. The suit had to be almost done charging by now and once it was . . . I was going to kill every last pawn here and burn this place to the ground.

One of the men sat on the stairs and pulled out a knife and a whetstone. He started sharpening the blade with a gleeful expression on his face while he tried to maintain eye contact with me. He’d be the first to go.

Thing two was pacing around like a caged bull. He looked more like a “take orders and still wonder what to do” kinda guy. I’d save him for last.

I was still working on my murder plan for the rest of the them when the watch the kid had given me started beeping. I glanced up, suddenly alert. Time to go.

Thing two reached over and picked up the watch.

“Careful there.” I warned. “It’s a limited edition.”

He smirked evilly before he tossed the pink watch to the ground and crushed it under his boot.

“See. That wasn’t mine to give away. That belonged to my friend’s sister. So I think I’m going to need to change the order up here. I’ll kill you first and your buddy second.”

He scoffed. “You think so, huh?”

“No. I know so.”

“What makes you so sure?”

Glass exploded behind him as a gauntlet shot inside and slammed into my wrist, breaking the zip tie. “This.” I fired at him, knocking him against the wall and possibly killing him. I reached up and grabbed the other zip tie keeping me tied to the bed and broke it effortlessly with the help of the suit. 

Thing one rushed me and I held him back with the gauntlet until I felt one of my boots wrap around my leg. I reached up and kicked him over, knocking him out. 

I heard yelling from the hallway as dozens more goons came rushing in at the sound of the commotion and I rushed at them, firing from the gauntlet and from the guns I stole along the way. I had three goals in mind. Survive. Save Pepper. Kill them all.

The bloodlust was almost overpowering and I was hardly aware of my motions as I made them. It was almost a disappointment when I gunned the last of them down. 

I fired the last of my clip into the bodies closest to me before I stumbled outside. “Good to be back. Hi, by the way.”

“Hello, sir.” JARVIS’ voice was a welcome relief. “I have a message for you, from Mr. Hogan. When you’re ready for it.”

I heard the sounds of fighting from around the corner and shook my head. “Not right now, J.” 

“I’ll just wait then.” JARVIS grumbled.

I ignored him and stumbled towards the sound of fighting. “Rhodey?” I asked.

Rhodey flew backwards as he got hit in the face. I growled and shot his attacker with a blast from my repulsor.

“Tony? What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“They wanted the suit for something.”

“They have your suit?!”

Rhodey grimaced. “Yeah. Is that a problem?”

I sighed. My face mask lifted so I could pinch the bridge of my nose. “It wouldn’t be. If I had access to the network.”

“Your suit’s not working?” He glanced at me with narrowed eyes.

“It’s a prototype. But it doesn’t matter. J, can you track it at least?” 

“It seems to be aligning with the flight path for Airforce One, sir.”

Rhodey and I exchanged glances. “We gotta save the president.”

“And Pepper.”

“They got Pepper too? That’s . . . they know you’re not together anymore, right?”

Something must have crossed my face because Rhodey took a step closer. “What’s goin’ on, man?” He asked.

I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.” I forced the words out even though it felt like I was gutting myself to do so because it was a damn lie. Of course it mattered. Angel had  _ always _ mattered.

Rhodey opened his mouth but I cut him off. “Come on. We don’t have a lot of time.”

I gripped him around the waist and shot into the sky.

“Tony!!!”

“Shh! I’m thinking!” I yelled back.

“J?” 

“They’ve cleared the cellar. The Iron Legion is clear for takeoff.”

“And this suit?”

“At 92% power.”

I grit my teeth. “It’ll have to do.”

“Sir, I’m afraid you’re too late. Airforce one is already being rerouted.”

“And the staff?”

JARVIS threw up a news reel of a half a dozen people parachuting to the ground. “Evacuated.”

“Where’s Pepper?” I asked.

“That, I don’t know. But I can trace Colonel Rhodes' suit. Shall we pursue?”

I closed my eyes and let out a breath. Everything in me was screaming to go after Pepper but I didn’t even know where to start. What would Angel have done?

I bit back a curse.

She would have looked at the big picture.

“Yeah, J. Hit it.”

JARVIS activated thrusters and shot us off towards Rhodey’s suit with Rhodey still whining in my arms. 

I could only pray that Pepper would be there too when we arrived.

“Sir, I still have that message from Mr. Hogan. Would you like to play it now?”

I glanced at the picture of Happy that JARVIS threw up on the screen. I had a feeling I already knew what the message was going to say and I didn’t want to hear it. 

“No, J. That’s okay. Can you . . .” I sighed. “Can you play the voice mail for the emergency servers?”

“Right away.”

Angel’s voice brought tears to my eyes as I listened to her message again. “ _ Hi, Tony. If you’re calling the emergency line, you must be in deep shit. I knew it would happen eventually. I assume that means I’m not there to pull you out of it too. Well, figure out a way to get back to me, baby, because wherever I am, I’ll be missing you. You may not know this, mister. But I love you. I’ll be waiting for you. Come home to me. _ ”

“Would you like to leave a message?” JARVIS asked gently.

I cleared my throat and blinked my tears away. “Uh. No. Thanks. Um. Just . . . get us there as fast as you can, will you, J?”

“I’m on it, sir. And . . . may I just say, I’m sorry for your loss.”

I sucked in a shuddering breath. “Thanks, JARVIS. Me too.”

We landed just outside a shipyard, hours later. I dropped Rhodey who immediately collapsed on the ground. “Never.” He panted. “Do that to me again.” He pointed a weak finger in my direction. 

Something was tugging at my chest. Something . . . familiar. 

I did my best to brush it aside.

“Do you want to save the president, or not?” I griped, glancing at the manpower we’d be dealing with. The cross-country flight had severely depleted my power cells and I wasn’t sure the suit was going to hold together much longer anyway. It had been through too much. “JARVIS? I think it’s time.” I murmured.

“The house party protocol, sir?” 

“Do it.”

“Sending the packages now.”

Rhodey pushed to his feet and pulled his gun off his belt. “Can you see him?” He asked.

I zoomed in on the suit and could just make out the president, hanging in Rhodey’s suit suspended above tanks of oil. “Yeah. It’s not good. Looks like they’re gonna give him a Viking funeral.”

“Not to add to your already busy night, sir, but I think I’ve managed to locate Ms. Potts.” JARVIS said.

He zoomed in on a heat signature too damn hot to be anything natural. “Yes!” I cried quietly.

I turned to Rhodey and crouched down. “Alright. Here’s what we do. You save the president, I’ll get Pepper.” I said.

“No. Bad idea. Bad idea. I don’t have a suit, man!” Rhodes whined.

“Who’s fault is that, huh? I managed to keep mine. Granted, it’s a little worse for wear, but still.” 

Rhodey rolled his eyes. “Still a bad plan. Think of something else.” 

I shook my head. “We don’t have time for anything else. Pepp’s my priority right now.”

Rhodey scoffed. “Yeah? How would Angel feel about that, huh?”

I swallowed hard, and had to glance away before he saw the tears starting to burn in my eyes.

“Tony?” He asked softly. “Tones, what happened back there?”

“It doesn’t matter.” I grit out, pushing to my feet.

Rhodey grabbed my arm and pulled me down to his level. “Of course it matters. What the hells is going on?”

I shook my head and glanced around, struggling to get the words out. “He . . .” I had to let a breath out. Saying it out loud would make it seem too real. “He killed Angel.”

Rhodey threw his head back and groaned. “Man . . . I’m . . . I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah. Well. Don’t be. I’m going to save Pepper and then I’m going to kill that son of a bitch.”

Rhodey glanced at me with too much understanding and pity in his eyes. “Alright. You do what you gotta do. I’ll go after the president.”

I nodded, my faceplate sliding into place. “Let’s end this, JARVIS.” I ordered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor, poor Tony.


	18. Take 'Em to Church

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

My eyes widened as I finally caught a glimpse of Tony. He looked like hell. Cuts lined his face and dark bags lined his eyes. I ran to him, wishing desperately that I could sweep him into my arms. There was a pain written on his face that hadn’t been there before. A soul-crushing loss painting in his eyes that nearly drove me to my knees. “Yeah. Well. Don’t be. I’m going to save Pepper and then I'm going to kill that son of a bitch.” Tony seethed.

I stumbled to a stop and started at him in shock. I’d never seen him this angry before.

My heart broke for him.

“Alright.” Rhodey said. He seemed to recognize the venom burning in Tony’s eyes too. “You do what you gotta do. I’ll go after the president.”

Tony’s faceplate slammed shut. “Let’s end this JARVIS.” He said.

Rhodey took off, sneaking into the night while Tony stood still.

“Tony?” I asked.

Tony didn’t respond. I desperately tried again, hopeful that he could hear me since I wasn’t one of the dead. “Tony?”

Tony shook his head and I was hopeful for a fraction of a second. “JARVIS. Fix the buggy comms, will you?”

My heart sunk.

“Sir . . .”

“And how far away is party protocol, huh?”

“They’ll be here shortly.” 

“Excellent. When they get here, have them target all Extremis heat signatures and eliminate with extreme prejudice.”

Tony turned his attention to a tower, high above the shipping yard. “Get me to Pepp, J.” He ordered.

The suit launched into the sky, and I stumbled back a bit as the faintest traces of heat washed over me as though I was in a dream.

I kept my eyes glued to Tony’s form as he shot through the sky and I raced after him. Hoss appeared out of nowhere, floating next to me with a wry look on his face. “You sure about this, sweetheart?” He asked. 

I ran up the stairs leading to the office I’d seen Tony disappear into. “You said to get myself out of this hell I needed to hitch a ride with someone. No one’s more likely to get themselves killed than my unlikely soulmate!” I called.

“You have no idea.” He grumbled under his breath.

I ignored him entirely as I rushed up the stairs. I was perhaps halfway up when the familiar sound of thrusters sounded around me. I glanced up with a smile on my face as dozens of suits arrived and immediately began taking the bad guys to church.

“Well I’ll be . . .” Hoss murmured, glancing at them with an impressed look in his eyes.

I turned to him and grinned. “What? Didn’t see that in your big picture?”

I didn’t wait for a response as I turned and ran the rest of the way up the stairs. I burst through the open door just in time to see a suit go flying through the room, exploding everything in its path.

“Tony!” I screamed in horror. 

I scrambled inside the room, searching for him. “No, no, no, no, no.” I glanced around desperately, looking for the doorway to the afterlife. If he was dead, there’d be one, right? Right?!  
A low groan sounded from the far end of the room and I scrambled towards it. A hand clad entirely in armor reached out from under a pile of debris and started shifting it away. Tony’s suit sparked as he climbed out of the wreckage but I sighed in relief and sank to my knees. He was okay.

“Pepper? You okay?” He called. 

I let the relief settle into my bones for another few minutes before I pushed to my feet and started looking for her. I saw a flash of pale red hair and I scrambled towards it. Pepper was lying, buried, under a ton of metal. “Tony! Tony! Come on! Will you just listen to me?!” Tony moved in the opposite direction as he checked under a desk and I felt the need to rip my own hair out. I groaned in frustration before I knelt beside Pepper. “I’m sorry about this, Pepp.” I murmured. I reached out a hand and placed it against the side of her face.

She hissed at the frozen sensation against her burning flesh and I winced as I ripped my hand away from her.

Tony’s head whipped towards the sound and he rushed towards it. “Pepper?” Tony bent down and picked up one of the beams that fell across her.

Pepper cried out in pain. “Stop!” She gasped for air. “Put it down, put it down.”

I scrambled closer and saw the shifting metal underneath. I glanced back at Tony and bit my lip. I wasn’t sure there was a way to pull her out without hurting her further.

Tony gently settled the beam back down and kneeled down beside her. “Hi, Potts. Long time no see.”

Pepper shook her head in exasperation. “It’s always going to be like this, huh?” She asked.

Something dark crossed Tony’s face. He didn’t respond as he reached out his hand. Pepper scrambled to grasp at it and I willed her to stretch just a little bit further. 

At the last possible second, a hand shot out of the ground under Tony and slammed into the arc reactor, ripping it straight out of the suit’s chest. 

“No!” I screamed, lunging forward but Hoss lunged in front of me. An invisible energy slammed into me and I bounced off it, falling backwards and away from Tony.

Hoss’ eyes were sad as he shook his head at me. “Not yet.” He murmured.

I saw in his eyes a determination I recognized from a lifetime of being a puppet to the dead and I knew I wasn’t going to get past him.

But I couldn’t just leave Tony alone. I scrambled to my knees and peered around Hoss’ intimidating form and watched as a man who glowed like lava started melting through Tony’s suit. 

“Tony . . .” Pepper begged.

The man glanced at her and then back at Tony while I knelt, helpless, on the sidelines. “I think you should close your eyes.” He said.

I closed my own eyes and tried to cling to the knowledge that the universe wasn’t done with Tony Stark yet. Not just yet. I’d bring him back. I could bring him back.

I only wished I could spare him the pain too.

I heard the glowing man rear back and give out a war cry that abruptly turned into a cry of pain. My eyes flew open to see him stumble away from Tony’s prone form. My smile of relief quickly faded as something started melting straight through the floor and the debris pinning Pepper started shifting.

“No! Don’t!” Hoss ordered, but he didn’t have the power to stop me as I lunged for Pepper just as the floor gave out beneath her, tumbling us both onto a pallet below.

I glanced up at Hoss who was glaring at me with barely concealed frustration, but I ignored him as alarms started sounding and the ground shifted beneath my feet. I glanced around wildly, but found nothing to stop our movement.

I cursed under my breath and knelt beside Pepper who was frantically trying to shove debris off of her. “I can do this.” I murmured. “I can do this.”

I focused every ounce of energy I had in me as I reached my hand out and passed it straight through the beams pinning her. I gasped in pain as the force of my attempted connection to them started shaking them. Pepper gasped and shifted and the beams shifted with her. She let out a frantic cry and grabbed for a rope dangling near her head as she started slipping.

“Come on, Tony. Come on.” I begged, wrenching my hand away from the beams.

I glanced up in time to see Tony lunge from a walkway above us and land on the walkway just below. “Pepper!” He called, reaching for her. “Give me your hand!”

I glanced down at Pepper and willed her to take his hand. 

Pepper shook her head. “It’s too far!”

Tony shook his head frantically. “Pepper, I can’t reach any further, and you can’t stay there. You have to trust me. I’ll catch you! You gotta let go!”

There was that desperation in his eyes again that cut me to my core and I begged Pepper to do this. To save herself and ease his pain. I saw the trust in her eyes a second before she loosened her grip on the rope.

Tony started to smile as she leaned forward.

And then an explosion rocked the crane, and Pepper slipped away. 

Tony lunged for her hand, but their fingers barely brushed as she fell past him. 

“NO!” He screamed.

Time seemed to slow as I glanced at the face of the man that I loved and down at Pepper’s falling form. I closed my eyes and made my choice.

I climbed on the ledge praying that just because I had a body in the land of the dead, this wouldn’t kill me.

I jumped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo I know for a FACT I promised a certain someone that everything would be fixed by chapter eighteen. 
> 
> To whom that person is;
> 
> Please don't kill me.
> 
> Plot happens. 😬


	19. Face to Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Just a heads up, this will be the last chapter posted on this fic for the next few weeks. Between finals and a career change, I’m booked solid. 
> 
> If I can get it all done, I hope to have at least one more chapter out before the new year, until then, hope this FINALLY fixed ending will settle your soul. At least I’m not ending it on a cliffhanger, right? ;)

Pepper’s screams were still echoing in my ears as I stared into the fiery hell she’d just fallen into. My fault. All my fault. Happy. Angel. Pepper. I was a disease. A sickness. I was no better than the damn Extremis.

I shook my head and pushed to my feet, climbing over railings as I moved back towards safety entirely on autopilot. My mind was stuck in a damn time loop as I replayed Pepper’s fall over and over again. Everything I could have done differently. All the ways I should have been better. She’d  _ trusted _ me and I’d failed her. 

And Angel wasn’t here to pick up the pieces this time.

A glowing presence caught my attention and I glanced up to see Killian standing at the end of the catwalk. There was a sadistic grin on his face as he spoke. “Shame.  _ I _ would have caught her.”

In the absence of the only light I had left in my life, I clung to the only thing that remained. Burning rage.

I clenched my fists and raced towards him. At the last possible second, I slid under him as he lunged into the air and threw myself in the suit that landed behind him just in time. I threw everything I had at him as I tried to finally kill the bastard that had taken everything from me.

Killian refused to go down without a fight though. His arms glowed red as he ripped one of the suit's arms off and knocked me to the ground. He reared his fist back and I knew I didn’t stand a chance. “Eject!” I ordered.

I was shot out of the suit and free fell three stories before JARVIS caught me in another. 

I immediately angled the suit upwards, slamming into Killian just as he peered over the ledge. We shot into the sky before he slammed into me, and dragged me down. We landed hard against the roof. The suit had already been badly damaged and it practically fell apart as I pushed to my feet. 

Killian cackled as he glanced at me. “Well look at this. Once again on the roof. Who will survive this time? I have a hint, it won’t be you.”

Killian’s entire face lit up like a Christmas tree as he prepared to launch something sure to be painful, right in my direction.

For a beautiful second, I was almost glad. I’d made a lot of mistakes in this life, but maybe this way, I’d get to see Angel again and apologize for the worst ones in person. 

“Sir, Mark 42 is inbound.”

I didn’t hesitate as I flung my hands forward and let the receptors still implanted in my arms shoot the armor forward and pin Killian to the wall. He roared as the faceplate slid home. “JARVIS? Do me a favor and blow the Mark 42.”

I spun around and launched myself off the roof just seconds before the suit exploded in a fireball way too big to be entirely my doing. I glanced around desperately as I dropped closer and closer to the ground. “Hold on, sir.” JARVIS said, sending a sparking suit to me. It gripped me by the wrists and slowed my descent to the ground but couldn’t quite stop it as it too, fell out of the sky, too damaged to stay in flight.

I landed, hard, against the cold cement ground and glanced up in time to see the entire shipyard exploding in a fantastic scene of absolute destruction.

I pushed to my knees and glanced around as the wreckage of my legacy and Killian’s fever dream rained down around me. A movement caught my eye and I glanced up in horror as a mangled Killian pushed to his feet amid the fire and destruction and hobbled towards me. 

I glanced around, desperate for a weapon as I tried to scramble away from him.

“No more false faces.” He hissed, drawing closer. “You said you wanted the Mandarin? You’re looking right at him. Face to face. It was always me. Right from the start. I am the Mandarin!” He flung his hands out wide, reaching for me but before he could even take a step closer, something rammed into him from the side, sending him flying through the air. 

My breath left my body as I saw Pepper standing in front of me, eyes glowing that familiar red that I’d come to associate with Extremis. She hardly spared me a look as she stared after Killian who was already pushing to his feet once more. She glanced down at the ground and without a second of hesitation, kicked a grenade right at Killian’s face. The thing impacted against his burning flesh and another explosion ripped through the night, this time taking Killian for good.

An eerie silence echoed through the night as the shock wave from the explosion rippled off into space. I pushed to my feet, hardly daring to breathe as I took a step towards Pepper because there was no way she survived that fall or the fire at the bottom of it. Not a single way. Unless . . .

I reached out to grab her shoulders. “Pepper?” I asked softly.

She spun around. “Wow. That was really violent.” Her voice shook.

My heart felt like it was going to beat itself right out of my chest and I had to take a deep breath to even be able to get the words out of my mouth. “You . . . Pepper, you  _ died.” _

Pepper glanced up at me and there was a sudden soft understanding in her eyes as she nodded slowly. She reached a hand out to cup the side of my face. “Yeah.” She whispered. “I did.”

The question I didn’t dare ask was on the tip of my tongue as Pepper slowly turned her head to glance over her shoulder.

Time stopped altogether as I followed her gaze and saw a body lying curled up on the ground only a few feet away. “ _ Angel _ ?” My voice cracked but I didn’t care as I pulled away from Pepper and rushed to Angel’s side. I dropped to my knees and let out a sob as I reached over and pulled Angel into my arms, cradling her tightly against my chest. Her beautiful eyes fluttered open to glance at me. Though she hissed and shut them tight again.

“Too bright.” She murmured, clearly in pain. She reached her hands up to weakly press against her ears. “Too loud.” 

I reached up to press her head against my chest, blocking out the sounds as I rocked her back and forth, unable to truly believe that she was here. With me. Alive.

Tears flowed freely down my face as I murmured her name over and over again. 

She reached out a weak hand to grip my bicep. “I made it.” She murmured. “I made it back to you.”

I let out a strangled sob and clung to her even tighter as Pepper approached us carefully. “Tony.” She murmured, reaching out a hand to place against my back. “We should get her to a hospital.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at Pepper’s concern for Angel and I knew Angel had just won another protector for life. I reached out blindly, searching for Pepper’s hand and squeezed it when she gave it to me. “Thank you.” I murmured. I didn’t know how yet, but I knew without a doubt it had been Pepper who had brought my Angel back to me.

Pepper nodded her head softly and glanced at the woman in my arms who had been through who knew what kind of hells in the past few days. “I should be thanking you.” She said softly.

I shook my head and squeezed her hand again. “Let me fix you, Pepp and we’ll call it even. I almost had this a few years ago. I’ll have you back to normal in no time.”

Pepper smiled at me and a sliver of the affection we’d once shared passed between the two of us before my attention was drawn back to the Angel in my arms.

I pressed a kiss against her forehead and promised myself I would never let her out of my sight again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaaand NOW it's OFFICIALLY fixed. Wouldn't you say?
> 
> Great job, Lucinda. Great job. Real pat yourself on the back kinda day. 
> 
> Now, try not to break anything else until at least Christmas. XD


	20. Strange New World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short Transition Chapter as we move towards the next film.

My eyes fluttered open and I was grateful to see that someone had thought to dim the lights. I hummed to myself and turned my head to glance around. Tony was sitting in a recliner next to my bed. His feet propped up against the edge of the mattress. His eyes were glued to the tablet in his hands and he was rubbing at his beard in concentration. I smiled at him, completely overcome by the love I was feeling. How did I know he’d be the first thing I saw when I woke up?

“Aren’t you sick of hospitals yet?” I teased tiredly.

Tony’s eyes shot to mine and he practically tossed the tablet to the ground as he lunged for me. “Angel.” He breathed, reaching out to stroke the hair away from my face. “You’re awake.”

I struggled to pull one of my hands out from under the blankets so I could reach over and place my hand on the side of his face. I relished the scratchy sensation of his five o’clock shadow under my palm. Tears prickled at the corner of my eyes when I remembered that for a time there, I hadn’t thought I was going to be able to experience the sensation ever again.

“Hi.” I murmured, smiling softly.

Tony grabbed my hand so he could press a desperate kiss to it. “Hi, yourself.”

For a long minute, we just basked in each other’s presence, grateful for the chance fate had offered us to be together again. Then, as it always seemed to, reality came crashing back in.

“What the hell happened, Angel?” Tony asked, flickers of that same haunted look I’d seen at the shipyard flashing through his eyes.

I sighed and pulled away from Tony, fiddling with my hands in my lap. “I saved Happy. And then I saved Pepper. I would do it again too.” I said quietly, looking anywhere but at him.

Tony reached over and put his hand over mine. “Angel you  _ died. _ ”

I swallowed hard as I remembered how terrifying it was to wake up in the afterlife without him. I shook my head slowly. “I didn’t. I was right beside you the whole time.”

Tony scoffed. “And that’s supposed to convince me that you didn’t die?”

I bit my tongue trying to figure out just how much I should tell Tony and how much he wasn’t ready to hear yet. Against my will my eyes slowly shifted until I was glancing at the only other person in the room. The man that Tony couldn’t see at all. The man who hadn’t left my side since I’d woken up in the afterlife. 

Hoss had an unreadable expression on his face but he slowly shook his head.

“I handled it.” I said weakly. “And I came back to you.” I pointed out. I smiled softly and reached out to stroke his face again, trying to distract him. “I always will, you know.” I traced my fingers down his face, over his throat and to his chest. I flattened my palm against his arc reactor and let my soul  _ sing _ as it was reunited briefly. “You’re stuck with me forever now.”

Tony gasped as my soul sang inside of him and he captured my fingers against his chest. Almost as if he couldn’t help himself. “No place I’d rather be, honey.” He murmured.

I leaned forward and he didn’t hesitate to meet my lips with a soft kiss that turned into a smile as I sighed happily. He pulled away and I pouted. Tony chuckled. “Easy, honey. Don’t want to overdo it. We should probably get a doctors note before we do anything . . . exciting.”

I rolled my eyes but smiled at him. “Well, if it would make you feel better.”

Tony chuckled again as he leaned forward and pressed another light kiss to my lips. He pulled back after barely a second and ran a hand down the side of my face. “Don’t go disappearing on me. I’ll be right back.” His tone was light but his eyes were troubled. I knew it was going to be a long while before either of us trusted that the other was alright. 

Tony’s hand slid down my shoulder and traced down my arm. He squeezed my fingers as he reluctantly pulled away in search of a nurse.

I waited until he was gone before my eyes flicked to Hoss in the corner again. 

“You don’t need to be here.” I murmured, knowing that with the veil between life and death firmly between us once more I wouldn’t be able to hear anything he might want to say.

Thank goodness for small miracles at least because I could see a lecture brewing in his eyes.

“I made it back.” I said, picking at the bedsheets as proof.

Hoss took an intimidating step forward. I shrank back against the sheets even though I knew in my head that he couldn’t hurt me.

He shook his head at me and some of the frustration in his eyes faded as he glanced at the door Tony had just disappeared out of.

‘ _ You changed things, Little Princess.’  _ Hoss’ voice rang in my head and I instinctively raised my hands to my temples as a pain spliced through my brain. ‘ _ Let’s hope you’re prepared to live with the consequences. There’s no escaping the dead now. You’re one of us. Like it or not.’ _

Tony’s voice cut through the pain like a butterknife and just as soon as it started, the stabbing sensation disappeared. 

Tony walked in the room and glanced at me, nodding at the nurse behind him. “They say you’re free to leave, honey. What do you say about going home?”

I swallowed hard, my hands falling into my lap as I watched Hoss fade away out of the corner of my eye. I'd never heard them before . . .

I forced myself to smile up at Tony as he came to sit beside me again. He took my hands in his and I chuckled. “Do we even have a home left to go home to? I remember it kinda, sorta, blowing up.”

Tony winced but smiled down at me with a sense of relief that cut me to my core. “I told you before, Angel. Home is wherever I am and now? That’s wherever you are. We’ll figure something out. But in the meantime, the Malibu Dream House might be gone, but I was getting tired of being the Ken to your Barbie anyway. What do you think about moving to New York?”

My smile was much more genuine as I cupped his face in my hand. “As long as you can still promise me a jacuzzi and a view.”

Tony grinned and leaned down to press a lingering kiss to my lips. “For you? Anything.”

I just hoped I could promise him the same thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've missed you Angel.
> 
> But also, buckle up. XD


	21. Welcome Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND WE'RE BACK BABY!

The car pulled into a parking space in the lot just under the impressive Avengers Tower. I had to admit, I was intimidated. I glanced out of the corner of my eye. Hoss sat in the back of the car glaring at the underground parking lot with no small amount of frustration burning in his eyes. 

That was encouraging. 

I sighed and turned to Tony who was drumming on the steering wheel almost nervously. 

“Tony?” I asked, drawing his attention to me. We’d discussed the move after I’d been discharged from the hospital. Tony had put on a brave face, but I liked to think we’d gotten to know each other very well in the last few months. Something about being back here bothered him. And it didn’t think it was just because last time we were here, he’d died. 

Tony glanced at me and smiled weakly. He reached over and grabbed one of my hands in his. “Welcome home, honey.” He said, leaning down to press a kiss on my knuckles. 

I squeezed his hand in mine. “Only with you.” I murmured. 

The smile on Tony’s face finally reached his eyes and he turned his attention back to the windshield. He pushed the button on his dash and turned the car off, but made no move to get out of the car. 

I bit my lip and waited for him. I knew that this move hadn’t exactly been something he’d wanted but with the house in Malibu still in the early phases of reconstruction for the time being and with Tony being asked to consult on more and more Avengers Team business, it only made sense for him to relocate to Avengers HQ which just so happened to be in the middle of New York City. He’d offered to find me somewhere else to stay for the time being - he had several other properties around the world he would have gladly let me stay in, but I insisted on coming with him. He was my home now. I didn’t want to leave his side.

Besides, I had a feeling a timer had already ticking down on the time we had left together. I didn’t want to be separated for any of it.

Tony sighed and bent his head, still not making a move to get out of the car and I knew that this move was difficult for him for another reason too. For whatever reason, he hadn’t wanted the team to know about me. When we first started living together, I chalked that up to his desire to keep something for himself after the fiasco in New York. But then, after we’d made official plans to move here, he’d started having nightmares that made me realize that part of the reason he’d wanted to keep me hidden away was because he was afraid of losing me. He didn’t know that I knew, of course, but more than one of his nightmares had involved one frozen superhero from a bygone era stealing me away. I didn’t know what caused such a deep rooted fear and I wasn’t sure I should bring it up.

For now, all I could do was reassure him at every opportunity that  _ he _ was the one for me and always would be.

Breaking the silence, I said; “We don’t have to go up right now. You did promise you’d show me the sights.”

Tony managed a weak smile. “I did, didn’t I?” He asked.

I nodded slowly. “Last time I was here I didn’t exactly stay long.”

Tony met my eyes then and reached out a hand to cup the side of my face. “Just long enough to save a life.” He agreed, staring into my eyes with a heated passion that I never got tired of seeing. 

I cleared my throat and had to pull away to gather myself again. “Later, tiger.” I murmured. I climbed right out of the car and moved to grab my bag out of the back.

“Don’t worry about it, honey, Happy will grab it later.” Tony said, following after me.

I sent Tony a glare. “Why should Happy do something I’m capable of?” I teased. 

Tony stepped close and wrapped an arm around my waist. He pulled me close to his chest and pressed a firm kiss to the top of my head. “You’re still recovering, Angel.  _ Please  _ let Happy do this.” 

I sighed and ran my hands over his chest where his heart was beating furiously. I hated that what had happened was still affecting him. The man had too much on his plate already and I was desperate to find a way to help shoulder some of the burden. If this was how I needed to do it, then so be it.

“Okay.” I conceded easily. I wrapped my arms around his waist and squeezed him to me. “But that means I’ll need someone else to give me the grand tour. Think you can spare anyone?”

Tony let out a breath, and seemed to relax under my teasing tone. “I think I might be able to spare some time.”

“Well then, lead the way,  _ Mister _ Stark.” I teased.

Tony reached out and punched my nose between two of his knuckles before he leaned in and kissed it. Then he reached for my hand and pulled me towards the elevators. “Wait till you see the R&D floor.”

“And this is the penthouse.” Tony said grandly as the elevator doors swung open. He flung his arms open wide as if he was giving me the world. In a way, I suppose he already had.

I stepped inside and took everything in with a wide-eyed gaze. 

Tony shuffled his keys in his hands nervously as he watched me. “It’s . . . it’s not as glamorous as the house, of course. I know you’ll miss the view of the ocean . . . Pepper decorated it, I haven’t really . . . you can do whatever you want. I want you to feel like this is your home too . . .”

I turned back to him when it became obvious that he was panicking. “Tony.” I said softly.

He glanced up at me with nervous eyes.

I cocked my head and smiled. “I love it.”

He stood frozen for just a second before a warm smile twitched up the corner of his mouth. “Yeah?”

I chuckled as I moved towards him. He opened his arms and I gladly fell into them, leaning against his solid chest. I never felt safer than when I was in his arms. “Pepper had good taste.” I said, glancing at the stylish decor. I hadn’t had much opportunity in my life to own anything decorative. Hard to have any of that when you spend so much time half-dead after bringing someone back from the brink. I wouldn’t have even known how to make the space feel more like a home, but it did. I felt just as home here as I had in California. Although maybe that was because of the company.

I tilted my head up and smiled at him. “You know . . .” I started, reaching up to rub his chest and trying to keep my grin under control. “You haven’t shown me where I’ll be sleeping yet.”

Tony’s breath hitched and I couldn’t hide my grin any longer.

“Don’t suppose it’s just as comfy as the old mattress?”

A matching grin tugged on Tony’s lips until he was beaming down at me with lust burning in his eyes. “Wanna find out?”

I pulled myself closer to him and that was all he needed to know. The next thing I knew, I was being flung over Tony’s shoulder as he set off, briskly, towards a hallway just off the main living area.

I laughed and slapped his back playfully. “Put me down!” I ordered.

Tony shook his head. “Not a chance, Angel. Tonight, you’re all mine.” 

Tony opened a door and took a few steps inside before he stopped. He reached up and pulled me down, letting me slide down his front slowly. We were both breathing hard by the time my feet hit the wood floorboards. I shook my head slowly as I pushed to my tip-toes. “I think you’ll find that you’re mine.” I said softly, leaning in for a kiss. “Always.”

I smiled down at Tony who was finally sleeping. It had been too long, again. My smile faded as I remembered that half of it was my fault. He’d hardly left my side since I’d come back; too terrified that I’d disappear again.

I couldn’t say I blamed him.

I glanced at the corner of the room where Hoss had snuck in a few minutes ago. He was glaring at me again.

I sighed and snuck out of bed, careful not to wake Tony, before I snuck out of the room and shut the door behind me.

“Listen, Hoss.” I started.

He glared harder, if that was possible. 

I rolled my eyes. “Well, you get what you get when you insist on being mysterious. Unless you want to try and interpretive dance your actual name at me, that’s all I’ve got for you. And listen, unless you have something for me, could you . . .” My anger had been rising up within me then, but all at once it left. I just felt . . . tired. My shoulders drooped and I turned my gaze to the floor. “I’m not leaving him, if that’s what you want me to do. I think you know that I can’t and . . . everything else . . . I don’t need you hanging around constantly reminding me of it, okay? So . . . please . . .”

For a long minute, Hoss stood there, with his perpetual glare on his face, his posture tense. I glanced up at him. Something in my expression must have made an impact because abruptly, his gaze softened and a kind of pity flashed in his eyes. He nodded once, and disappeared, leaving me alone.

Well, alone with the three other ghosts who were randomly wandering through the apartment. I glanced at the rest of the dead, but none of the rest of them seemed to have any interest in me. I sighed in relief. Maybe, at least for a few hours, I could pretend that I was just a normal girl living the life she’d always dreamed of with the guy she was crazy about.

My stomach grumbled.

And maybe I would remember that I had a talking man in my ceiling and sometimes real life was even better than fantasy. “JARVIS?” I asked. “Is there any food in here?”

“I’m afraid not. Mr. Stark doesn’t usually eat in the penthouse.”

“Let me guess, it’s usually take-out in the lab.”

“You’d be correct.”

I laughed. “Is there food anywhere else in the tower?”

“There’s a common kitchen down on the main living floors. I believe it’s currently stocked.”

“Can you show me the way?”

“Of course. If you’ll get on the elevator, I can take you down.”

“Thanks, JARVIS. You’ve always got my back.”

“I do try.” 

I stepped into the elevator and rode it down quietly to the floor below. JARVIS opened the doors and slowly lit the path in front of me. “Tony never does anything by halves, does he?” I asked as I glanced around the space. A giant television with various gaming consoles was set up against one of the walls. Several couches big enough to hold an entire football team were artfully placed around it. Just to the side, where JARVIS was patiently guiding me, an entire industrial sized kitchen was set up, just waiting to be used. A smile lit my face as I thought about what all I could do in here. I hadn’t had much experience cooking, but I sure had fun trying when I had the chance. Maybe Tony and I could make a date night out of it sometime.

“It would go against his nature to try, I believe.” JARVIS sassed.

I grinned as I reached for a cupboard. “Well, I can’t say I don’t . . .”

A roar sounded from just behind me. I spun around just in time to catch a glimpse of blond hair before I was tackled to the ground with a painful sounding ‘crack’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still on an irregular posting schedule, but should be MUCH more frequent.
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me! 
> 
> Any ideas of what's coming next? I can promise it's only gonna get better from here.


	22. Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

“Sir, there’s a situation.”

I was awake in an instant. “Get me a suit.” I ordered, throwing myself out of bed without being fully aware of where I was.

“There’s one on its way.”

JARVIS’ words went in one ear and out the other as I glanced down at the bed where I’d fallen asleep with my Angel just a few hours ago. “Where is she, J?” I demanded, a sinking feeling already starting to build in my gut. If I’d lost her . . . If I’d never had her to begin with . . .

“She’s the situation.” JARVIS responded as the bedroom door opened and a suit walked in.

I snapped to attention.

“What the hell does that mean?!” I demanded. My heart felt like it was about to beat right out of my damn chest.

“She’s in the team kitchen. She’s under attack. I believe Captain Rogers thought she was an intruder. I haven’t been able to reason with him.”

I cursed loudly as I sprang for the elevator. JARVIS was already sliding the doors open for me. It only took seconds for me to reach the team’s floor, but it was seconds too long. I flew out of the elevator quite literally and didn’t hesitate as I slammed myself into Rogers’ shoulders, tackling him off Angel’s body.

Angel gasped, I couldn’t tell if it was in pain or fear, as I crashed head first into the dinning table. Wood splintered around me and Steve grunted.  _ That _ sounded painful.

Good.

I pushed to my feet just as Steve jumped to his. “Stark?” He asked, questioning my abrupt appearance.

I ignored him as I rushed to Angel’s side. She had pushed herself up and was leaning against one of the cupboards, a pained grin on her face. “I think you forgot to mention some things.” She tried to tease. Her breaths were coming in pants.

I pulled myself out of the suit and moved towards her quickly. My hands fluttered over her as I instinctively checked for injuries. Belatedly, I realized I didn’t know what to look for. “JARVIS, I need a scan.”

She scoffed and raised a hand up to cup the side of my face. She tried to hide her wince at the movement, but I caught it anyway. 

I was going to  _ kill  _ him.

“Tony?” Steve asked again, closer now.

Speak of the devil.

Fire must have been burning in my eyes, but she wouldn’t have any of it. She shook her head slowly at me and gave me a pointed look. 

I let out a long sigh and bent my head before I turned to glance at Steve over my shoulder. “Steve, this is Angel. Angel, this is Steve.”

Steve’s eyebrows rose at that introduction, he didn’t seem to know what to say.

“Ignored him, Captain Rogers.” My Angel let out another pained gasp as she tried pushing to her feet. My attention immediately swiveled back to her as I lent her a hand. Beside me, a screen appeared out of thin air, showing her scans. Nothing seemed broken . . . 

“My name is Y/N. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She held out a hand for him to shake.

Steve blushed embarrassedly as he reached out a hand to shake hers. “Nice to meet you too, ma’am. Sorry about the circumstances.”

Angel pushed a hand against her ribs and grimaced. I zoomed in on the area on the scans. Probably just a deep bruise. I should probably have Bruce take a look at it though. At the very least. Maybe I could have a doctor come by. Come to think of it, I should probably just have a doctor on retainer. Just in case.

I tuned back into the conversation just as Steve asked a question. “How’d you two meet if you don’t mind my asking?” 

“Oh, just a little town in California. We met at a diner of all places.” I said quickly, before Angel could answer. I saw the look she shot me but I just shook my head. The Battle of New York had brought us together as a team but I knew Capsicle’s reputation better than most. He was an army man who followed orders to the letter. It wouldn’t have been a problem if Fury wasn’t still holding his reins but I didn’t trust the head of SHIELD anymore than I trusted Cap’ here. Not with a secret as big as Angel’s. I’d be damned if I let them take her. Or worse. The thought of that had me wrapping an arm around her waist, and pulling her tightly to my side.

Steve’s eyes narrowed in on the action. “And you’re . . .”

“Together. Also true.” I said shortly. “Are we done with the twenty questions? I think she bruised something and I want to get it checked out.”

Steve’s interrogation face immediately fell away as guilt flooded his expression. Good. He had a lot to be guilty for and if it kept him the hell away from her, all the better.

“Right. I’m so sorry about that, doll. If I’d known . . .”

“You know now.” I said shortly, the term of endearment rankling more than it should. “Come on,  _ Honey _ . Let’s see if Bruce is around still. He can take a look at your ribs.” I gently led her away but she wasn’t done.

She glanced over my shoulder as we left the apartment and waved a hand a Mr. High And Mighty. “Sorry for waking you up, Captain! It was an honor to meet you!”

I rolled my eyes, careful not to let her see, but I didn’t say anything as I led her to the elevator. 

It had been silly, really, to hope that I could keep her all to myself. It was one of the reasons I hadn’t wanted to come back to New York. There was one bright spot in my life now. One. And she was it. Was it too much to want to keep that light all for myself?

“Come on, Honey. I think Bruce is probably in the labs now.”

She held herself stiffly in the elevator as she glanced at me. “It wasn’t his fault, you know.” She said softly, reaching for my hand.

I sent her a tired smile. I did know that. It didn’t mean I had to like it. He’d hurt her.

“I know. It’s just . . .” I let out a sigh and squeezed her hand. “I’m never going to like seeing you hurt, Angel.” I said softly. “I’d spare you all the pain in the world if I could.”

The smile she sent me then was so full of love and understanding I almost wept. No one had ever looked at me that way and I was prepared to go to war with anyone who tried to take her away from me again.

“I know you would, Tony. That’s why I love you.” 

The elevator doors dinged open and that was that. Angel walked into the labs as if she hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me. I’d heard those three little words before, of course. Twice in the last few weeks even. But she’d never said them to me in person before and it took me a moment to recover. The idea that someone with someone even could say them, and with such a caviler attitude . . . 

I swallowed back my tears and followed after her.

Bruce was, sure enough, bent over one of the tables in his half of the lab. A look of intense concentration was painted on his face. We’d missed him earlier when I’d given Angel a tour of the lab but she wasted no time in moving towards him now. “Dr Banner?” She asked quietly.

Bruce’s head shot up. My angel gasped and I glanced at her to see her staring at something just above Bruce’s head.

Bruce shifted restlessly. “And you are . . .?” He trailed off.

Angel didn’t respond.

I glanced at her nervously before I turned to Bruce. “Sorry, Banner. This is Angel.”

Bruce glanced at me with wide eyes. He knew exactly who I was referring to. I’d never called her anything else when I’d been searching for her. “You mean . . .”

I nodded.

Bruce turned his attention to her then with a scientific glint in his eyes that I didn’t like but couldn’t fault him for. He was the only person in the entire damned tower who knew what Angel was capable of and I was going to keep it that way.

I gestured towards her. “Do you mind giving her a check over? There was a misunderstanding and our resident geriatric tackled her. My scans don’t show any internal injuries but . . .”

“It’s just a bruise.” Angel cut in, rolling up the shirt she’d stolen from me to gesture at the giant bruise already forming against her ribs. “I’ll be fine. Tony’s just a worry-wart.”

Bruce and I exchanged a wry glance, but I didn’t disagree. When it came to my angel, I reserved the right to always worry.

Bruce approached her carefully and started prodding gently at her flesh. Angel winced a few times, but otherwise kept her eyes pinned to whatever it was she was seeing just above Bruce’s head. A small smile formed on her lips as she cocked her head to the side.

Bruce finished up his exam and backed away. “You’re going to be fine.” He said. “Just bruising. Take it easy for a few days and see a real doctor when you get a chance.” He turned to me. “In case you were wondering, that means someone other than me.”

I chuckled, while keeping my eyes firmly on Angel. “I keep telling you, I’d be more than happy to pay your way through med school. You seem like you’re halfway there already anyway.”

Bruce chuckled. “Yeah and I keep telling you; I’m sure all the stress and yelling would really be good for the big guy.”

“Oh, he’s not that bad.” Angel said quietly. “He’s more curious than you give him credit for being.”

A total silence filled the lab as Bruce and I turned to stare at her with varying degrees of shock on our faces. The dazed expression on her face cleared as she blinked at us. “Wh . . . what?” Bruce managed.

She smiled at him softly and leaned closer. She murmured something softly in his ear that I couldn’t hear. 

Bruce sat heavily in his chair. His shocked expression glanced up at her again.

Angel merely smiled and reached for my hand before she started for the elevators again. 

“It was nice to meet you Bruce! You too, big guy!” She called over her shoulder.

I couldn’t look away from her. “Big guy?” I asked as the elevator doors slid shut behind us.

She grinned. “He’s pretty gentle when you get to know him.”

My eyebrows shot up. “And . . . you . . . know . . . him?”

Angel laughed. “I do now. He’s a softie. More than you ever gave him credit for being. Now . . . can you help me with something?”

I shook my head to try and clear it before I turned to her. “Sure . . . honey. Whatever you need.”

She rubbed at my chest as the elevator doors opened back up to the penthouse suite. “Captain Rogers and I had our little misunderstanding before I could eat. I don’t suppose you know any late night take-out joints? I’m starving.”

I threw my head back and laughed. My Angel could drop me on my head and make me question everything I knew, but she was also my sense of normal. “I know just the place, honey.”

“My hero.” She smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you suppose Angel was looking at over Bruce's head? Questions, questions.
> 
> Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be coming up soon. What do you expect to see there? XD
> 
> Questions? Prophecies? General thoughts? I love reading your comments!


	23. New Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV.

“Angel, Captain Rogers is requesting access to the penthouse.” JARVIS said.

I glanced up from the book I was reading. “You can let him in. Thanks JARVIS.” I said. 

The elevator dinged almost immediately and I turned towards it just as Steve climbed off. He was holding a bouquet of roses in one hand and what looked like a box of chocolates in the other. A half a dozen ghosts stepped out beside him and glanced around the room as though they were looking for threats. Former soldiers by the looks of them. 

“Hi, Captain. What brings you up here?” I asked, turning my attention to him. “Tony’s in the lab.” I pointed out, realizing belatedly he might not be looking for me.

“I know.” The Captain blushed and I couldn’t help but smile at him, amused. “I was actually looking for you.”

“For me, huh?” I teased, pushing myself up from the couch. I tried to hide my wince but I didn’t think I was quite successful. Steve’s face fell slightly and he gestured at my side.

“How bad is it?” He asked.

I shook my head as I moved towards him. “It’s just a bruise. I’ve had worse.”

Steve smiled at me wryly. “I’m sure that’s how Tony feels about it too.”

I threw my head back and laughed. “You know him that well already, huh? I suppose that doesn’t bode well for me. Not sure what’s worse, the injury or the papa bear it brings out in him.”

Steve shook his head. “Go easy on him, huh, doll? You don’t understand how hard it is for us fellas when our dames are hurt and we can’t do anything for them.”

I nodded thoughtfully as I glanced back at the ghosts of the men that surrounded Captain Rogers. Each of them was nodding firmly. “I suppose that’s true. Though the same goes for us. Maybe you’ll experience that yourself someday.”

Captain Rogers grimaced quietly. “Maybe.” He said quickly, eager to change subjects. The ghosts around him gave him knowing smirks that, of course, he didn’t see.

Interesting.

Steve glanced down at the things in his arms. “These are for you.” He said abruptly, thrusting them into my arms.

I fumbled with them for a minute. “Uh . . . thank you.” I said. It was my turn to blush. “You didn’t need to do that.”

Steve shook his head. “It was the least I could do after I . . .” He trailed off.

“Tackled me like a linebacker?” I offered, moving to the kitchen to find a vase to put the flowers in.

Steve groaned behind me. “Do we need to phrase it like that?” He asked.

“Fine. Kicked me to the curb like yesterday’s trash?” I teased.

“Nevermind.” He grumbled under his breath. 

I shot a smile in his direction so he’d know I was just teasing and his own expression lightened up as he slid onto a barstool.

“I  _ am _ sorry about that, doll.” He said softly. “I’m still stuck in my ways I suppose. I saw what I thought was an intruder and I acted. I didn’t know you were here with Tony.”

I nodded thoughtfully as I leaned against the counter across from him, trying to find a comfortable position despite my ribs. “Tony and I met a few months before the whole Mandarin thing. It was . . .” I let out a breath. There was a lot I didn’t want to talk about when it came to the whole Mandarin thing and I was sure there was a lot that Tony didn’t want anyone knowing about too. I wasn’t sure how much I should mention to the Captain. “It was painful for the both of us. We both got hurt. You mentioned that you ‘fellas’ would do anything to protect us. I think Tony was trying to protect me in his own way. He just doesn’t always think things through. He said that he sent out a message this morning telling you and the rest of the team I was here, though?”

Captain Rogers nodded. “There was a briefing.” He grinned at the face that I made then. “Don’t take it like that, doll. It’s standard procedure. If you’re going to be here, the team needs to know enough about you that they don’t see you as a threat. A few of us have had . . . well . . . bad experiences I guess you could say. It’s more for our peace of mind than because anyone actually thinks you’re a threat.”

I wasn’t thrilled about it, but I guess I couldn’t blame them there. I just hadn’t realized how many hoops Tony was going to have to jump through in order to let me stay. I reached for the chocolate box and opened it, grabbing a sweet before I pushed the box towards Steve who reached inside too at the offer. “Does this mean I’ll meet the rest of the team eventually?” I asked.

Steve shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe. I guess it depends on how long you’ll stick around and how often you’ll be here.”

A grin split my face again and I pointed a finger at him. “I know for a fact there are several spies on the team Captain Rogers and now I also know for a fact that you’re not one of them. That was the worst example of fishing for information I’ve ever seen.”

Captain Rogers blushed and ducked his head. “It wasn’t that bad.” He grumbled.

I nodded my head emphatically and grabbed another chocolate. “It was. It was absolutely that bad. Don’t quit your day job.”

Captain Rogers shook his head and mock glared at me. “Will you answer the questions anyway? And please, call me Steve.”

I smiled and licked my fingers. “Fine,  _ Steve _ . I’ll answer your questions but only because I like you.” I pondered it for a minute and thought about the relationship that was slowly growing between Tony and me. I thought too, about the things that were coming and knew in my heart of hearts that this is where I was meant to be for the rest of my life. However long or short that was. “I plan on sticking around for a long time, Steve. Tony . . . Tony’s my life now and, I know that sounds a little obsessed but . . . well . . . we’ve both saved each other more times than I can count. I know it’s a new relationship . . .”

“But when you know, you know.” Steve nodded his head and a wistful expression crossed his face. I could see a deep sadness echoing in his eyes, one that the group of soldiers surrounding him seemed to understand. A few tried to pat him on the back, their hands sailing right through him as they tried.

I glanced at his face with new understanding. A question was burning on the tip of my tongue but I didn’t feel like I had a close enough connection yet to ask such a deeply personal question.

I nodded my head instead. “So, to answer your questions.” I said softly. “I’ll be here for as long as Tony lets me stay and since  _ I  _ don’t have a day job . . .”

“She’s here to stay.” Finished Tony as he came up behind me and wrapped an arm around my waist. I straightened in surprise, a smile coating my face. I’d gotten used to Tony’s work habits when we’d been in California. I hadn’t expected to see him for the rest of the day after he’d headed down to the labs early this morning.

“What are you doing here?” I asked with a grin.

Tony kissed the top of my head. “JARVIS mentioned we were having a party up here. I thought I’d join.”

Tony’s words were innocent enough, but I caught Steve’s wince anyway. Clearly he didn’t trust Steve alone with me. I sighed internally, but outwardly pretended not to notice. Instead, I pointed to the flowers and the box of chocolates still sitting on the counter. “Steve just came up to drop off some apology gifts. Not that he needed to.” I sent Steve a grateful smile, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring at Tony’s face just over my shoulder. A tense moment passed as the two communicated something back and forth without saying a single word.

Finally, Steve pushed off from the counter and gestured towards the elevator. “I should get going, doll. It was nice talking with you.” He started walking away before something occurred to him and he turned to me again. “I’m glad you’ll be staying for awhile. Something tells me you’ll like it here.”

He got on to the elevator and disappeared, taking his ghost friends with him. Only then did Tony release the death grip he had on my waist. He moved around the counter and took Steve’s empty seat. “How are you really doing, Honey?” He asked softly, reaching out to capture one of my hands.

I saw the dark bags under his eyes and the worry lines crinkling the corners of his eyes. I had half-a-heart to call him out on the way he had treated his friend, but I couldn’t. As I took in the flowers and the chocolates, I realized what all of this must have looked like from an outsider's perspective.

“I’m okay, Tony.” I said quietly, squeezing his hand. “I’m here. I’m with  _ you. _ ” I emphasized the last word, trying to drive home the point I was trying to make. I had a feeling Tony wouldn’t respond well if I put all my observations into words. He didn’t need to worry about Steve Rogers or anyone else stealing me away from him. No one would ever replace him in my heart of hearts. Like they even could. “You own a piece of my soul, remember?” I asked, leaning forward so I could trap my free hand against his chest. “And I don’t want it back.”

Tony smiled at me then, a true grin that seemed to erase, if only for a moment, all the pain and the worry that he seemed to constantly carry around with him. “You could have one of mine too, you know.” He said. “Because you’re my endgame, Honey, I hope you know that.”

I nodded my head. “Of course I do.”

Tony leaned in and captured my lips, giving me a quick kiss before he pushed away from the bar and groaned. “I need to get back to work, I’m on to something and I don’t want to lose the threads.”

I gestured towards the elevator with my head. “Go on, then. I’ll be fine. I’m taking it easy just like Bruce ordered.”

Tony chuckled. “You know he’s less twitchy today? Something you said to him last night stuck.”

I grinned but shrugged my shoulders. I hadn’t actually said anything to Bruce last night. I’d said something to the so-called ‘beast’ he had locked up inside of him. I’d been talking to Hulk who I could see hanging above Bruce like an overprotective ghost. Once Hulk had realized that I could see him, he’d been more talkative than I would have thought. More than anything he wanted to know if I was going to hurt ‘puny Banner’. It was easy enough to tell him I intended him and his charge no harm. I hadn’t realized that Bruce didn’t know about Hulk’s overprotective tendencies. 

Maybe I should talk to him too?

Tony smiled at me with amusement on his face. “I don’t know why I was ever worried about bringing you here. You sure seem to be thriving.”

I walked around the bar so I could reach out and hold his face in my hands. “You worried because you’re overprotective like that. But you know I can take care of myself, right? I have an entire army of casper’s at my beck and call. People should fear  _ me.” _

“That right, huh? At  _ your _ beck and call?” Tony asked, wrapping his arms around my waist.

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’m at theirs. But it’s practically the same thing.”

Tony leaned down and pressed a kiss against the top of my head as he hummed. We stood, pressed together like that for a few minutes, before Tony reluctantly pulled away. “I really should go finish what I was working on.” He said.

I smiled up at him. “Go on, then. I’ll be okay. I’ve been keeping myself distracted.”

Tony glanced at the book I’d left on the coffee table. “You could always come down with me. I’m told I make an excellent distraction.”

I chuckled. “You do, baby. You definitely do. But I think I’ll be a distraction too and then we’ll both get lectured because I won’t be resting then.”

Tony threw back his head and laughed. He pointed at me as he backed towards the elevator. “I like the way you think, honey.” He smiled. He hesitated just in the doorway for a minute and a strange expression crossed his face. Eventually, he came to some sort of decision. “I . . . love you.” He said.

He spun on his heel and let the elevator doors slide shut before I could respond.

I shook my head and turned back to my book. There was a big smile on my face as I turned to my book and a warm feeling spreading through my chest at the thought of being loved. It had been so long since I’d had that in my life. I felt invincible.

That lasted all of two minutes.

Then I looked up.

Pain radiated through my brain and I dropped my book to squeeze my temples as Hoss’ disembodied voice crossed the veil between this life and the next. ‘ _ You’re needed. Come with me.’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steve, Steve, Steve. Chocolates and flowers could be considered an apology gift. But you know what else it could be considered? A boyfriend gift. Guess who definitely thinks it's more of the second than the first? XD
> 
> You'd best start sleeping with one eye open. Tony controls the tower. He could get back at you without lifting even a single finger.


	24. Back to Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

I attempted to resist the compulsion to follow Hoss as he moved towards the elevators, but every time I tried to dig my feet into the carpet, ghostly hands would reach out and grab at me until I was practically being dragged through the apartment.

“I need to tell Tony I’m leaving. I need . . .”

_ ‘What you need doesn’t matter. Come. There isn’t much time.’ _ I flinched at the blinding pain that radiated through my head. By the time the elevator doors closed around me, I was struggling to breath. “JAR . . . JAR . . .” I tried summoning JARVIS but I couldn’t get the words out.

_ ‘You cannot summon your  _ lover _.’  _ Despite my pain, I could hear the clear derision in Hoss’ voice as he sneered at the word. ‘ _ He will only stop you. Your life is not yours to control. Not in matters such as these. You are needed. You will do what you must. As we all do.’ _

Something warm and sticky trickled down my chin. With a shaky hand, I reached up and wiped my hand across my lips. It came back coated with blood. I let out a shuddering breath.

Hoss glanced at my glistening palm with something akin to resignation burning brightly in his eyes. Thankfully, he didn’t try to comment anything else as we rode down to the lobby in absolute silence.

The doors opened with a peppy ding that sounded all too loud to my throbbing mind. I glanced around at all the innocents in the lobby and took a deep breath before I forced myself to take one step after another towards the front doors. Tony didn’t want my secret getting out, but he wasn’t the only one. I’d lived my entire life knowing what I was and the consequences that inevitably came out when people found out what I could do. For my own sake, I could pretend I wasn’t being held hostage by the powers that be.

Hoss led the way as we quietly made our way through the crowds. I kept my bloodied hand pressed against my jeans and kept my head bent towards the floor so no one would notice the blood still trickling down my face.

I made it out the doors of the tower and the cacophony of sounds hit me like a punch to the side of the head. I flinched back as another wave of pain rolled through my mind, so powerful that I almost dropped to the ground.

Out of the corner of my mind, I saw Hoss open his mouth to say something. “No!” I shouted.

A few of the pedestrians around me glanced at me with disgusted expressions and veered around me. Hoss snapped his mouth shut and nodded grimly. He glanced around before he gestured with his head towards a street. 

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, praying that Tony would be okay without me for however long he’d need to be and then I followed after Hoss.

I had walked for what felt like hours before Hoss finally paused in the middle of an ordinary sidewalk. He glanced back at me and then gestured into a random alley. I glanced around me quickly before I took a few hesitant steps inside. No one spared me even a single glance as I wandered farther into the forgotten alley. My eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim lighting, but I couldn’t see anything interesting.

Just as I was about to turn around and leave, a groan caught my ears. I froze in my steps and my eyes narrowed in on a crumpled form I’d originally brushed off as a pile of refuse.

“Hello?” I asked, stepping closer. The groan sounded again.

I raced towards the form and turned it over to see the face of a kid lying in the alley. His face was swollen and his breathing sounded labored. He couldn’t have been more than fourteen.

“Oh, kid. It’s okay.” I mumbled, brushing at his hair as I glanced around me. A dozen or so ghosts crept closer, their grim eyes glued to the kid’s face. “It’s okay.” I repeated, turning back to him. “I’m going to fix you up, okay? You’re going to be alright. Just hang in there. Hang in there for me.”

I swallowed hard and let my connection to the otherworld flare up within me. Time slowed down, two lives hanging in between this life and the next. I felt the chilly air of the dead as they pushed their power into me and then I bent down and pressed my lips to his, breathing  _ life  _ back into him.

I pulled back as his wounds slowly started knitting themselves back together. My eyes fluttered, and I shook my head, trying to stay awake.

The kid bolted upright as his consciousness returned. “Holy fruitcakes.”

I chuckled tiredly as I lost the battle to keep myself upright and laid down on the dirty ground next to him. “Never heard that one before.” I commented as I felt myself start being pulled to sleep.

“You . . . you . . .” The kid stammered, glancing at me and then at the alley opening and back again. “Holy crap. You saved me. I . . . I don’t know how . . .”

I waved a hand weakly. “Do me a favor, kid?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.”

“Call Tony Stark? I think . . . I think I need some help . . .”

I didn’t wait for a response before I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me.

Tony’s POV--------------------------

I was in the middle redesigning the arc reactor power distribution cells in the suit when JARVIS cut the music blasting around me. 

I sighed. “We’ve talked about this, J.” I murmured without looking up.

“We have, sir.” JARVIS agreed. “But I thought you’d make an exception this once.”

“Why’s that?”

“The front desk just got a call I thought you’d like to hear.”

“Pepper takes care of that kind of thing now.” I reminded the AI.

“I really think you’ll want to hear this one.” JARVIS insisted.

I rolled my eyes and pushed away from my desk for a minute. I waved my hand through the air. “Fine. Let’s hear it.”

Immediately the voice of a prepubescent boy filled the air. “Hi, is this Stark towers?”

“It is. How can I help you?” A second voice responded.

“Uh . . . well . . . I don’t . . . There was this alley, see, and there were some guys hassling a woman and I tried to step in but something they knocked me around a bit.”

“Sir, I think you need to call 911.”

“No! No! Don’t hang up! Listen, this lady showed up and saved me.”

My blood froze in my veins. 

The boy continued. “I’m pretty sure I would be dead if it wasn’t for her but she’s not waking up.”

Before I even knew what hit me, I was on my feet racing towards the Hall of Iron. JARVIS already had a suit moving towards me. I didn’t hesitate to throw myself into it and shoot out of the tower.

“Sir, 911 . . .”

“Patch me through, J.” I ordered.

“Patching.”

“Hi, kid, this is Tony Stark.”

“Oh! Mr. Stark! Wow. Okay, uh. Wow. I mean she said to call you before she passed out, but I didn’t think . . .”

“You did good kid. Now I need you to do one more thing for me, okay? I need to know where you are.”

“Downtown Queens.”

I cursed under my breath. “JARVIS, we still have Dr. Chavez on retainer?”

“Yes, sir.” 

“Get her here ASAP.”

I glanced at my screens as a trace on the kids phone showed up. I threw everything I had into the thrusters as I shot for it. “Listen kid, is she breathing?”

There was a rustling sound as he moved around. “Yeah. Yeah she is. It’s shallow though and she looks really pale. I think . . . I think she was bleeding at some point. There’s dried blood all over her shirt and on her hands . . .”

Fear shot through my heart and a helplessness filled me. We’d just been joking about how in control she was with the dead that haunted her. So help me, if they’d hurt a single hair on her head . . . 

“It’s okay kid. You’re doing great. I’m almost there, okay? I just need you to stay with her. Can you do that?”

“Yeah. Yeah. I can do that.” There was a brief pause. “You’re sure that she’s going to be alright?”

Something caught in my throat but I pushed it aside relentlessly. My Angel in Blue had overcome literal death in the past. She would come through this too. “Yeah, kid. She’s a survivor.”

The kid chuckled weakly as I zoomed towards them. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Peter.” He said softly. “Please hurry.”

I pushed the suit harder.

Only a few minutes later, I came to a land in the middle of a dark, dirty alley in the middle of Queens. The kid jumped and swung around as I raced towards them. Angel was lying on the ground, lying too still for comfort. Peter glanced at her. “I tried everything, Mr. Stark. She won’t wake up.” He said with fear burning in his voice.

I brushed him aside gently so I could hold a hand over Angel’s body. “JARVIS? Can I get a scan?”

In the corner of my screen, a full body scan appeared. “Physically, she appears to be uninjured other than her bruised ribs.”

“The blood?” I asked.

“I don’t have an answer for that.” JARVIS said.

“Can I move her?”

“Yes.”

I bent down and gathered her gently in my arms. I was just about to blast off into the air, when I remembered Peter. “Thank you, kid. You did good. You ever need anything, you call me, alright? I’ll make sure you have my number.”

I didn’t wait for a response as I shot into the air, my entire world cradled limply in my arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What and interesting turn of events. Oh what could happen next, me oh my?


	25. Not Your Average Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's better than one chapter? 
> 
> Two chapters. XD
> 
> Thepracticalheartmom said that the last one had a mean cliffhanger soooooooo HERE'S ROUND TWO! WOO!
> 
> Hope you enjoy.

I woke with a gasp and bolted upright, immediately trying to take in my surroundings. Everything felt . . . muddled like I’d gone somewhere and couldn’t remember where. I was shaking and my chest was heaving like I was struggling to get enough oxygen. 

It was always disorienting when I woke after having fulfilled the will of the dead but I felt even more untethered than usual.

I was just about to descend into a full panic attack when a familiar head of blonde hair filled my line of sight. “T . . . Tony?” I asked, but that wasn’t quite right.

The man shook his head. “It’s Steve. I can get Tony if you’d like? I sent him to go get some rest. He’s been by your side for almost two weeks.”

I glanced at my hands that were shaking in my lap. A part of me wanted to be selfless. Tony didn’t get rest at the best of times, I should let him sleep, but I didn’t want to be selfless. I was untethered and scared and I needed him. 

I nodded my head.

“JARVIS?” Steve asked gently as he reached for me and gathered me in his arms. He rubbed a soothing pattern on my back. “Can you tell Tony that Angel’s awake?”

“Right away, sir. I’m glad to see you’re back with us, ma’am.”

I barely heard the AI as my muddied thoughts started to finally gather together. Steve started muttering soothing words, keeping his one arm wrapped around my front as he held me in an awkward side hug. It was then that I realized I’d started crying.

I didn’t know how long we sat locked like this but finally, I heard the sound of shuffling. My gaze shot up and I saw Tony standing in the doorway, his arms over his chest and an unreadable expression on his face. I held out both my hands and made a grabby motion as though I was a child and my sobs burst free then in earnest.

Tony didn’t hesitate to race towards me. I felt Steve shift away and head for the exit, but I didn’t pay any attention. Tony took his place, wrapping me in his arms and squeezing me close. I let myself cry without fully knowing what it was I was crying about as Tony rocked me back and forth. 

I was okay. 

I was safe.

Tony would protect me.

That’s all I needed to know.

Tony’s POV--------------------------

I laid in bed staring at the ceiling. I’d practically been falling asleep in the chair by Angel’s bedside when Steve had come in and sent me up here. “ _ You’re no good to anyone if you’re dead on your feet.”  _ He’d argued.

Funny how I couldn't fall asleep now.

It had been two weeks since I’d found Angel passed out in that alley in Queens. Two weeks with nothing to show for it. JARVIS and I had scoured the surveillance footage from here to there and had traced her route but there were so many holes in the story. Why had she walked three hours to get to Queens? And why had she been bleeding when she left the tower?

I ran a frustrated hand over my face.

The question most important of all was what was happening to her now? Dr. Chavez had arrived only a few hours after I’d gotten Angel back to the tower but she hadn’t had any more insights than I’d been able to determine with a few well placed scans. She was in a coma. No one could figure out what triggered it, though I had some suspicions, or when she was going to come out. Because she  _ would _ come out of it. I’d meant what I’d told the kid. She was a survivor.

Speaking of the kid, he’d been nothing if not persistent in asking for updates on Angel since I’d made sure JARVIS had gotten him my number. It was sweet how much of a protective instinct he had. It was the kind of thing hero’s needed and Lord only knew we needed more heroes.

I sighed and closed my eyes again, willing my brain to just shut down, just for a few hours but it was no use.

I pulled myself out of bed and pulled a shirt on before I bent down and pulled a pair of jeans on. If I couldn’t sleep, maybe there was another way to look at Angel’s problem. The brain wasn’t exactly an area of expertise, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t make it one. Maybe Bruce could help with some of the logistics. Surely if the two of us put our heads together . . .

“Sir?” JARVIS’ voice interrupted my thoughts as I moved towards the elevator.

“What?” I asked tiredly.

“Captain Rogers is requesting your presence. Angel is awake and appears to be in distress.”

I froze in place for only a second, convinced that this was a dream, and then I was moving towards the elevators. Two little words were on repeat in my mind and I’d never heard a chorus so sweet. ‘She’s awake. She’s awake. She’s awake.’

I raced for the room we’d put her up in, close enough to the guest room of Dr. Chavez that the doctor could have easy access to her, but far enough away from the rest of the tower that I didn’t have to worry about anyone hurting her further. I stumbled to a stop in the doorway and tried not to growl at the sight in front of me.

Capsicle had his arms wrapped around her, his chin resting on the top of her head. 

If looks could kill . . .

I was about to say something when Angel’s gaze shot up to meet mine and the jealousy and anger I was feeling melted away at the terrified and distraught look on her face. She raised her hands towards me and I was by her side in an instant. Steve melted away as I held my Angel and rocked her back and forth as she cried her heart out. Her sobs shook her entire frame and pain laced at my own heart. There was so much I didn’t know about the other half of the life that she led. So much I couldn’t protect her from. But this? This I could do and I would do it until the day I died. Whatever she needed, I would freely give and as I bent my head to press a kiss to the top of her head, I vowed to find a way to stop the bastards who liked to use her like this, if it was the last thing that I did.

Steve’s POV ------------------------

I moved into the hallway just outside Angel’s room and watched as Tony comforted her. I felt a sudden presence at my side and glanced over to see Romanov watching the exchange with an unreadable expression on her face.

“She’s awake.” She observed.

I nodded my head and turned back to the spectacle. It was hard to mesh the sight of the man I saw in there with the man I knew his father to be. Tony Stark and I didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, but it was clear to me and I assumed anyone else with eyes that he loved that woman in there.

“Stark say anything else about what happened to her?” Romanov asked.

I shook my head and crossed my arms over my chest. He’d been tight-lipped about the entire thing and something about it rubbed me the wrong way. “It seem odd to you that he hasn’t shared more? I mean, we didn’t even know she was here until I . . .”

“Until you almost killed her.” Romanov grinned.

I sighed and let my head drop. “Is anyone ever going to forgive me for that? It was an accident.”

Romanov shrugged, but kept her eyes glued on the woman in the room. “Stark doesn’t normally share unless he’s inclined to.” She stated, but there was something in her tone . . .

“But you think he knows something.” I stood a little straighter as another thought occurred to me. “You think she’s dangerous?”

Natasha eyed the woman carefully. Tony and Angel didn’t even seem to notice the interrogation they were undergoing.

Eventually, Natasha shook her head. “Not to us.” She said.

I opened my mouth to ask what she meant by that, but I realized it was a waste of breath. Natasha was a lot of things, but an open book wasn’t one of them. Still, I’d learned enough about her over the past eight months that I was willing to wait for her to explain in her own time.

Natasha glanced at me. “I spoke with Banner about her.” She started.

I didn’t try to hide my surprise, I doubted I would have fooled her if I had. “Oh? What does he think?”

Natasha’s gaze narrowed at something just over my shoulder. “That’s the thing, he didn’t say anything.”

“So he doesn’t have an opinion about her. That’s hardly surprising based on how secretive Tonys’ been about her.”

Natasha shook her head. “It’s more than that. He knows something. I got the impression he was covering for someone. Either her or for Tony.”

“That doesn’t make you suspicious?”

Natasha turned her attention back to Tony and Angel as Tony climbed into the bed and pulled her into his arms. Natasha shook her head slowly. “It makes me think there’s more to the story than we realize, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Bruce was . . . calmer when he spoke about her. Something about Stark's ‘Angel in Blue’ calms him. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Especially with all of us living here for the time being.”

I nodded thoughtfully and watched carefully for a second as Angel’s tears finally slowed down and she drifted back to sleep in Tony’s arms. I couldn’t say that I blamed Dr. Banner for that reaction. I’d felt it too. The ghosts of my past haunted me less when I was in her presence. I could only imagine that she did the same for him.

“You report to Fury about her yet?” I asked.

Natasha shook her head. “What’s there to report?”

I nodded my head. “For what it’s worth, I trust her.”

Natasha glanced at me sharply and I let her see the truth on my face. I didn’t know why, but I did trust her and I had a feeling that we needed to keep her close. Call it instinct honed over the course of my brief military career, but she was important.

Even if I didn’t know how yet.

Natasha’s expression turned mischievous and I sighed and walked away, hoping to avoid the conversation I knew was coming.

She just followed me towards the elevators. “So I met this great woman in IT today.” She started.

I ignored her as she went on and on about the latest in a long line of women she had been trying to set me up with. I rubbed at my chest absently as I tried to think about anything else.

I’d been in love already once in my lifetime and I’d lost it. It may have happened seventy years ago, but for me, it felt like it had happened just last week. I wasn’t ready to jump back in now, and I wasn’t sure I ever would be. Besides, I’d seen the look on Tony’s face when he thought that he might lose Angel. It was a look I was familiar with and came from the kind of heartbreak I never wanted to experience again.

I straightened my shoulders and shook my head at Natasha’s question; “Do you want her number?”

A person only met their ‘soulmate’ once in a lifetime.

I’d already met mine.

I wasn’t looking for anyone else to fill the void.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sooooorrrry Steve. But you'll be fine soon enough.
> 
> Poor Tony. Angel's going to be the death of him.
> 
> They'll have a better reunion next chapter. Promise.


	26. Interrogations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

The next time I woke up, it was to a strange sense of deja vu. My eyes fluttered open and I turned my head to see Tony sitting in a recliner next to my bed. His feet were propped up using the edge of the mattress and his eyes were glued to the tablet in his hands. Just like I had almost a month ago, I smiled at him, completely overcome by the love I was feeling. I opened my mouth to tell him so, but I just couldn’t form the words. The emotion was too strong. Instead, I teased. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”

Tony’s eyes flew to meet mine and he set his tablet aside so he could lean towards me and take the hand I offered him. He brushed his lips against my knuckles. “How are you feeling?” He asked.

I rubbed my forehead with my free hand and turned to glare at the ceiling. “Like I died and came back to life.” I groaned.

“Honey . . .” Tony’s voice shook.

I turned back to him, chagrined. I squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry.” I whispered. “Too soon.”

Tony nodded his head and let out a sigh. “I . . . I’m trying not to let this get to me, Honey.” He said. “But you keep disappearing on me.”

My eyes watered at the wariness I heard there. I knew better than most how hard my ‘gift’ was for the people who had to watch the aftermath. It was the reason that I had been alone for so long. “I know, baby.” I murmured, squeezing his hand again. “You don’t have to try to be the strong one here, you know.”

Tony glanced at me for a long minute before the smallest of smiles curled his lips. He chuckled. “No, that would be you.” He said, staring at me lovingly.

“And don’t you forget it.”

For a minute, everything was alright in the world but then Tony glanced at the tablet lying on the nightstand and everything came rushing back. He glanced at me again. “Can you explain what happened? I just . . . there are things not adding up for me.”

I saw the need on his face then. He  _ needed _ to be able to take apart this problem and find the solution. Just as much for himself as for me I suspected. It didn’t matter that he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. But that was why I loved him.

“A ghost came not long after you left.” I started slowly. “He said that they needed me. He wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Tony’s jaw ticked, but he nodded at me to continue as he folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “I saw the security tapes from the elevator and the lobby. It seemed like you were resisting. Is that why you were bleeding?”

I winced at the question. “I was just . . . overwhelmed.” Silently, I pleaded with him to move on from the question, but Tony, my brilliant Tony, knew me too well.

“What happened, Honey?” He probed gently.

I closed my eyes and debated whether or not to tell him the truth. He couldn’t do anything about it either way but knowing . . . it was going to hurt him.

I opened my eyes to see him studying me intently. He wanted to understand this so badly. He wanted to  _ protect _ me so badly.

I reached my hand for his hand again and he took it in both of his. “One of them was talking to me.” I said quietly. “It . . . it  _ hurt _ .” 

“We didn’t pick up any other audio . . .”

I smiled at him sadly. “You didn’t pick up a visual either I’d imagine. They aren’t haunting  _ you.”  _ I tried to tease.

Tony smiled but glanced at me pointedly. I sighed. “I don’t hear it so much as feel it. When they’re talking. It’s . . .”

“It’s new, isn’t it?”

I glanced away. “Yes.”

“Since . . .”

“Since Pepper and I got . . . back.”

Tony let out a shaking breath.

“What are you thinking?” I probed softly.

Tony shook his head. “I’m thinking . . . I’m thinking that I don’t even know where to start here, Honey. The only thing I can do is inject you with a tracker so I can find you no matter how far away the dead drag you.” 

He meant it as a joke but his smile faded when I didn’t laugh too. “Might not be a bad idea.” I murmured.

Tony ran a hand over his face and I was suddenly overcome with guilt. “Tony . . . we . . . I . . . you didn’t sign up for all of this.” I gestured around me with my free hand in a vague sort of way.

Tony glanced down at me sharply. “What are you saying, Honey?” He asked, his grip on my hand tightening.

I squeezed back. “You can cut your losses now, Tony. I . . . I won’t blame you.”

Tony dropped my hand like it burned him and he pushed to his feet abruptly. “Do you want to leave?!” He demanded incredulously.

“No!” 

Tony swore under his breath and stalked to the bed. He braced his hands against the pillow on either side of my face. “You’re the best damn thing that ever happened to me.” He leaned down and pressed a bruising kiss to my lips. “If you want to leave . . . I won’t stop you. But if you don’t . . . I won’t ever stop fighting for you, Angel. I’m Iron Man. I’ll take on the entire world, this one or the next to keep you here with me, safe and sound.”

I let out a sob as his words washed over me, and then I couldn’t help it as I flung my arms up and wrapped them around his neck, dragging him down so I could capture his lips with my own. When I finally came up for air, I smiled up at him. “I’m not going anywhere.” I pretended to think about it for a minute. “But maybe you should figure out a way to make sure you can find me when I inevitably do wander off again.”

Tony chuckled and bent down to press a quick kiss to my lips. “You’re stuck with me now.” He said with a grin. “Hope you’ve thought it through. I’m told I come with an awful lot of baggage.”

“I’ll add it to mine.” I shrugged as he pulled away. “Is Happy still around to carry it all?”

Tony threw back his head and laughed. “I love you.” He said, his eyes burning with a passion that let me know just how serious those three little words were for him.

“I love you too.”

Tony gestured towards the door. “I’m going to get started on that tracker and maybe look into exorcism science. If you need anything, you’ll call, right?”

I nodded.

He smiled at me one last time before he headed for the door. “Wait!” I called.

He turned back.

“What happened to the kid?” I asked.

Tony smiled softly. “He made it. You did good.”

I relaxed back against the bed. Good. We were going to need him.

For a long while, I stared out the window next to my bed, lost in my thoughts. I didn’t know how long I’d been sitting there in silence before someone cleared their throat. I jumped nearly a foot off the bed and spun my head to see a beautiful red-head standing beside me. “Geez! Sorry I didn’t hear you come in.” I rubbed at my chest where my heart had just tried to make a break for it.

The woman smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes and gestured towards the chair Tony had been sitting in earlier. “Do you mind?”

I shook my head and watched her wearily. I’d been in New York when Loki had attacked. I’d seen this woman fighting. She wasn’t one to be messed with.

“So you’re Y/N.” She started as she glanced around the room.

I followed her gaze and jumped as I saw the ghosts that shimmered into view. There were at least a half-a-dozen and they all looked  _ pissed.  _ Their hard gazes were glued on the woman beside me. Across the room, a vase of flowers started vibrating.

_ Poltergeists _ .

Damn.

The woman caught me staring at the vase of flowers and her eyes narrowed on me infinitesimally.

Double Damn.

“Tony’s very protective of you.” She noted suddenly.

I tried to focus on her, but the poltergeists were drawing closer with murder in their eyes. “Yeah, uh, we’ve been through a lot together.”

The glint of a ghostly knife flashed in the air as one of the ghosts swung down, trying to impale her with its blade. The woman didn’t react physically as the knife sailed right through her heart, but I thought I saw something flash through her eyes. 

I couldn’t contain my own wince. Her jaw ticked.

“Steve mentioned that you’ll be staying here at least until Stark leaves again.”

The ghost threw back it’s head and let out a screech that would have put a banshee to shame. I winced again. The woman’s eyes narrowed even further. “Sorry, headache.” I lied, pointing at my head. “And yes. I’ll be staying. Tony’s the closest thing I have to family. As long as he’ll have me, I’ll be here.”

She nodded again and for a second, I could have sworn her eyes flickered to the side where the ghost stood glaring at her, before her eyes flicked to me again. “Well, in that case, we should get to know one another. My name’s Natasha. It will be nice to have more women around. The testosterone can be a bit much sometimes.”

I nodded. “That would be nice.” I agreed. “I don’t have many friends.”

The ghost beside Natasha angled his knife and aimed it for her gut. Just before he could swing, she stood abruptly. “I’ll let you rest.” She said. She leaned over to the nightstand and grabbed the box of tissues there. She handed it to me. “I think you’ll be an asset to the team.”

I stared at the box and then at her as she turned to leave. “But I’m not . . .”

She threw a bittersweet smile over her shoulder. “I think we both know that’s not true.”

She left then, the vengeful ghosts following after her.

I turned back to the tissue box in my hand and stared at it for a moment before I felt the warm trickle of a bloody nose starting.

A sinking feeling filled me.

I had a bad feeling about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh-ho-ho, Natalia. You've got some secrets yourself, don't you?


	27. The Guardians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

Tony walked in with two bags of food and a mischievous smile on his face. “Hi, Honey.” He murmured, leaning down to press a quick kiss to my lips before he settled himself in the armchair by the bed.

“Please tell me one of those is for me.”

Tony’s lips twitched. “Tired of the hospital food already?”

I glared at him. “I am. Which is interesting because we’re not in a hospital and yet I’m still getting hospital food.”

Tony shrugged. “What can I say, Honey, I don’t make the rules.”

My eyes narrowed but lucky for him, he handed me one of the take out bags and a plastic fork before he turned to his own food. My stomach grumbled loudly as I opened the take out box and smelled the heaven inside. It felt like it had been years since I’d last eaten properly.

Tony chuckled but thankfully turned back to his food instead of making a big deal about it.

“So do I get to move back upstairs again soon?” I asked.

Tony nodded. “Dr. Chavez gave you a clean bill of health. Nothing’s wrong physically . . .”

I could already see the gears spinning in Tony’s head and I shook my head and murmured his name gently. “Tony.”

Tony turned his eyes to me, guilt burning in them brightly. “I can’t begin to explain to you how much it means to me that you care enough to try and figure this out, but this is one puzzle you’re not going to be able to solve, baby.”

Tony laid his fork down and glared down at his lap. His jaw ticked. “You were in a  _ coma _ , Honey. A  _ coma. _ You can’t ask me to forget about this.” He raised his eyes and I saw the tortured expression there. I sighed and reached for his hand. He grabbed mine desperately.

“I’ve been doing this my whole life, Tony. Sometimes I lose days, sometimes weeks, sometimes more. But I’ve always been  _ okay. _ Trust me.” I caught a glimpse of Hoss out of the corner of my eye. He’d taken up a watchful position after Natasha had left earlier and hadn’t moved since. I didn’t think it was a good omen of things to come, but it was probably best not to mention  _ that _ to Tony. “They need me.” I could say that at least with assurance. “They won’t let anything happen to me.” Yet.

Tony let out a long breath before he squeezed my hand once and returned to his food. “Forgive me, Honey, if that doesn’t exactly reassure me. For all I know, they’re all just figments of your imagination.”

I gaped at him and scrambled for the tissue box lying next to me and chucked it at his head. Tony batted it aside almost effortlessly and sent me an all too innocent smile. I grumbled under my breath before my stomach grumbled again and I went back to my food too.

For a few minutes, we ate in silence. Then, I caught Hoss’s gaze again. The look he was giving me, chilled me to my core. An overwhelming sense that something bad was going to happen sooner or later filled me. I swallowed hard and glanced at Tony. He caught my gaze and gave me a sweet smile that reminded me that I wasn’t alone anymore and for this particular battle, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be alone.

I played with my fork as I cleared my throat. “So . . . I met Natasha today.”

Tony froze.

I swallowed again. “She seemed to think I’d make a good teammate . . .”

“No.” Tony’s voice was firm and resolute. “Absolutely not.” I could practically hear the ‘over my dead body’ that I thought I could see burning in his eyes.

“Tony . . .”

“No! Honey!” Tony cursed under his breath and pushed to his feet, his dinner forgotten as he paced around my room. I winced as he walked right through Hoss’s glaring form.

“She’s not getting you. None of those SHIELD assholes are. If they knew what you could do . . . “

“Tony, baby. If you don’t tell them and I don’t tell them how are they going to know?” Right? Natasha had glanced at me weird but she didn’t know . . . she couldn’t know . . .

Tony’s chin dropped to his chest and his shoulders sagged. “Right.” He murmured. “Right.” He glanced at me. “I just . . .”

“You’re trying to protect me.” I said, reaching out for him. He moved to sit beside me on the bed. “Thank you for loving me enough to try.” I whispered, leaning up to kiss him.

He pulled away and leaned down to press a kiss against my forehead. “Anytime, Honey. You’re it for me. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

I was just about to pull him back down for a longer kiss, when a throat cleared in the doorway.

Tony and I both glanced up to see Steve standing there, awkwardly holding two take-out bags. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I see you already have dinner . . .” He gestured at the take-out containers Tony and I had abandoned.

Under my hands, Tony’s biceps tensed. “What are you doing, Rogers?”

Steve blushed. “I thought Angel might like something a little heartier than the cafeteria food and I thought you might still be busy in the lab . . .”

Tony was practically radiating irritation. “That was thoughtful Steve, you didn’t need to.”

Steve smiled at me softly. “It was no problem, doll. Just wanted to apologize for being a part of what put you in that bed in the first place.”

I glanced up at Tony in surprise. I wasn’t sure what story he’d fabricated for the whole coma thing, but clearly he’d thrown Steve at least part way under the bus to do it. ‘Later.’ He mouthed at me.

I nodded slowly before I turned to smile at Steve again. Before I could, my eyes caught on the group of ghosts that always seemed to follow him around. Their stances were practically predatory as they marched into the room and circled around Hoss who was eyeing them wearily. The tension skyrocketed as they took, in unison, a step towards the ghost who was bent on making my life a living hell. Hoss eyed them wearily but didn’t move.

_ ‘Leave _ .’ One of the men demanded. I winced as his voice pierced the veil and stabbed against my skull.

_ ‘No.’ _ Hoss replied. ‘ _ I have business here.’  _ My fingers twitched against Tony’s chest. I could feel his worried eyes staring at me.

“Angel?” Tony’s voice sounded like it came from far away.

‘ _ You’re not welcome here.’  _ The legion said, taking another step forward. I felt blood start dripping down my face.

_ ‘They have need of the girl. I will remain by her side.’ _

A few of Steve’s ghostly guards glanced at me. Their faces were grim as they caught me staring. One of them, a man with a handlebar moustache shook his head and turned back around. ‘ _ We guard Steve Rogers. To hurt him, you declare war on us. He cares for the girl and we won’t allow him to lose anyone else. Leave, Demon. Or we will make you.’ _

Tony was shaking my shoulders now, and Steve was suddenly beside me. When had he moved? His arms were waving around as he frantically spoke to someone on his phone.

Hoss glared at the assortment of men. ‘ _ Fine. But we are not done. You will be called on again. Soon.’  _ Hoss’s eyes slid to meet mine. His jaw ticked in anger. But just like that, he disappeared from view. A weight in my chest I hadn’t even realized I’d been carrying seemed to disappear alongside him. The guard who spoke earlier turned to me with a gentle sadness in his eyes. ‘ _ Rest well, Protector. You’re safe now.’ _

The ghostly figures around him all dipped their heads towards me in agreement before they took up protective stances around the room. 

Just like that, the trance holding my attention shattered. I blinked rapidly as the real world suddenly came into sharp focus. Steve was shouting my name as Tony reached over to hold one of my eyelids open. “Stop that.” I reached up and batted his hand away weakly. “I’m fine.” I met Tony’s frantic eyes with a pointed look of my own. His jaw tensed even further and he nodded imperceptibly. Determination filled his eyes and he pushed to his feet.

“Stay with her.” He ordered before he stomped out of the room.

Steve glanced down at me with worry in his eyes. “You sure you're okay, Angel?” He asked, settling down in the chair beside the bed. I surreptitiously glanced around the room at the guardian angels who were now just as much my guardians as they were his and nodded softly. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.” I reached for the box of tissues Tony had set back on the nightstand and grabbed a few to clean up my face. “Nosebleeds. I get them a lot.”

Steve nodded slowly, a clear amount of distrust on his face. “You were kind of in a . . . trance there for a minute.”

I reached for my food, no longer hungry, but needing something to do with my hands. “Yeah. Sorry. Headache.”

Steve didn’t believe me. I could tell by his narrowed expression and the hard set of his mouth. But just as he opened his mouth, no doubt to call me on my lie, one of his guardian angels reached out and hovered a ghostly hand just above Steve’s shoulder in a show of solidarity and just like that, Steve’s jaw snapped shut.

“Have they told you when you’re getting out of here, yet?” He asked, brushing aside my episode like it had never happened.

I glanced at the ghost standing just over Steve’s shoulder and he nodded at me encouragingly. A warmth settled over me as I realized I had found allies on both sides of the veil. Maybe, just maybe, I would be able to protect Tony after all.

I smiled as I turned back to my food. “I can leave today if I’d like.”

Steve smiled. “Not one for hospitals, huh?” He asked.

I chuckled. “Not that this is much of one, mind you, but no. I don’t particularly like being bed-ridden.”

Steve shook his head. “Looks like another thing we have in common. I was in and out of ‘em my whole life . . . well . . . before the serum.”

I glanced at him. “Tell me about it.” I encouraged.

Steve grinned and began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Prophecies? General Comments? Lemme hear 'em! XD


	28. The Missing Variable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For all y'all who have been loving the Hulk & Reader dynamic. XD

I ran a hand through my air and blinked at the equations that were staring back at me. The math just wasn’t working and I wasn’t sure how to force it to compute. How in the  _ hell _ was I supposed to design a suit capable of showing me what Angel saw when the damn things weren’t supposed to exist in the first place?

I’d spent months tinkering on this project in secret. Ever since Angel had agreed to move in with me in the first place. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was coming for her because of her connection with the afterlife. That feeling had only grown since she’d been sucked into it over Christmas. And now, she was slipping into trances that I couldn’t pull her out of. There had been so much blood . . .

I shook my head and tried to clear it and went over the pieces of the puzzle for the thousandth time. I’d done the research. Or at least, I’d had JARVIS do the research and give me the cliff-notes version. There were dozens of so called ‘ghost-hunters’ out there but the science behind their techniques was laughable at best. Not that it had stopped me from buying a ghost box. My experiments had been, as expected, inconclusive. I doubted I’d have anything concrete unless I roped Angel in directly but I didn’t want her to know what I was looking into. Besides, roping her in would draw more attention to her and I could already feel the vultures circling. 

Romanov had already been to visit her. That wasn’t a good sign. She was terrifyingly perceptive but she, more than any of the rest of us, had a direct line to Nicholas Damned Fury and he was the  _ last _ person I wanted sniffing around Angel. A woman who could bring the dead back to life? I liked to think I was smart enough to see how valuable a man like Fury would see that. I’d chosen to take on the mantle of Iron Man and I didn’t regret it. I saved lives. But Angel . . . she put her’s on the line every time she tried. I’d seen what had happened to her when she’d tried with Happy and that Peter kid. I wasn’t risking her life anymore and I sure as  _ hell _ wasn’t going to let Fury risk it on whatever whim crossed his mind. She was my world. I wouldn’t make it without her.

A figure hesitating in the doorway caught my attention. “Might as well come in Bruce.” I said. “Maybe you can help me with these.”

Bruce walked over and glanced at them. “Still trying to crack the afterlife code, huh?” He asked wryly. 

I leaned back in my chair and looked at the ceiling. “Can you blame me? I can’t protect her from something that I can’t even  _ see. _ ”

Bruce sighed and pulled his glasses off his face so he could rub at his eyes tiredly. “Have you talked to her about this, Tony? She knows more about it than you do. If she says . . .”

I leveled a look in his direction. “Don’t start with me.” I said. “Besides, is this really the hill you want to die on? I know for a  _ fact _ that the big guy is riding you just as hard to figure this out.” I waved my hands over my half-finished formulas.

Bruce grinned. “You know that, huh?”

“I do.”

“How?”

I grinned at him. “When was the last time you volunteered to step into my half of the lab? I think it was the last time I tried to draw the big guy out. Ever since Angel went comatose, you haven’t been able to keep away. Don’t try to tell me that it’s  _ your _ protective instinct’s we’re watching out for.”

Bruce shook his head rapidly and started pacing around the lab. “I can’t explain it, Tony.” He said.

I crossed my arms over my chest and shot him a look that screamed, ‘try’. Then I sat back and waited. Maybe if I understood this . . .

Bruce opened and closed his mouth a few times as though he were trying to find the words. “That first night that you introduced us, she couldn’t stop staring.”

“At something over your shoulder, I remember.”

“The thing is, the big guy? He’s always felt like a physical presence looming  _ over my shoulder _ and when you left . . . she turned to me and she said; ‘You have pretty eyes, big guy. You should try showing him your smile sometime too.’”

I shook my head. “I . . .” I let out a breath. “That’s a hell of a thing to say.”

Bruce nodded. “It was, of course it was, but the thing is, the big guy hasn’t been as . . . loud . . . since she said it and whenever she comes up in conversation there’s this . . . warmth. Kind of like a hug if you can believe that. I think Hulk likes her. At the very least he’s calmed down since you brought her here. He’s been easier to live with; it’s been easier to keep calm.”

“But?” I prompted.

“But then you brought her back from who knows where, unconscious and bleeding and suddenly it was like it was right after the accident that made the big guy in the first place. I’m antsy, Tony, all the time. Nothing helps. Nothing. Unless I’m thinking of ways to help her.”

I leaned forward in my chair. “Hulk doesn’t like that she was hurt.” I summarized.

Bruce shrugged and waved his hands around. “It sure doesn’t seem like it, but all of this is theory. I can’t exactly talk to him.”

“You can’t.” I pointed out.

Bruce groaned and threw back his head. “You really want to trap the big guy in a room alone with her?”

“Hey, I never said that. I wouldn’t mind trapping  _ you _ in a room alone with her, for a few minutes anyway. You said yourself he’s calmer when she’s around.”

“And what’s that supposed to solve, Tony?”

I was nodding to myself because it was truly that simple, wasn’t it? I glanced at the numbers again, losing myself in my thoughts until Bruce interrupted again. “Tony? I don’t like the look on your face right now.”

I glanced at him. “Come on, we need to talk to Angel.”

“Tony . . .” Bruce started complaining.

“Bruce, she sees the dead.” That shut him up. “But your ragier other half isn’t dead, is he? So if she can see him . . .”

“. . . Then you’ve been approaching this all wrong . . .” Bruce finished.

I snapped my fingers at him and headed out of the lab. This could be my missing variable. Now to see if it would actually yield anything.

Your POV ------------------------------

Steve helped me up to the penthouse once I’d finished eating. He’d offered to stay with me, but there had been so much on my mind, I’d told him I was just going to rest. He’d left not long after, taking his guardian angels with him. 

I’d had so much experience with the dead over my life, but I’d had almost none with guardian angels. I’d begun to think they were just a myth made up by people who needed something to blame for the little miracles they saw in their lives. But this . . . ?

And what was I supposed to think about the poltergeist’s following Natasha around? If that shaking vase had been any indication, they were growing stronger.

I’d seen The Black Widow in action during the Battle of New York, but how would she be able to fight what she couldn’t see? Then again . . . maybe she could . . . I thought I’d seen something when the angriest of them had swung his ghostly blade towards her.

I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face. It had been years since I’d felt so out of depth in my own element and I didn’t like it. I had no one to turn to. No, that wasn’t right.

I cursed under my breath.

I did have someone to turn to. But one of Steve’s angel’s had just called him a demon and had sent him away. 

That was a  _ great _ sign.

I dropped my face in my hands and tried to figure out what I was going to do.

I didn’t have long to ponder before the elevator dinged. I glanced up and watched as Tony and Bruce walked in. “Hi baby. Bruce.” I said. “What’s going on?”

Tony moved to sit on the coffee table in front of me. He took one of my hands in his and gestured at Bruce. As usual, my eyes were drawn to the towering translucent figure standing above him. The big guy smiled at me with a softness in his eyes I hadn’t seen him give anyone else. I smiled back.

Bruce cleared his throat and my gaze dropped to him. “You can see him, can’t you?” He asked, glancing at me curiously. 

“Hulk?” I asked, glancing up at the ‘big guy’ in question. I quirked an eyebrow. He rolled his eyes back at me. I stifled a grin as I turned my eyes back to Bruce. “Yeah, I can.”

Bruce nodded his head. I could practically hear the gears turning in his brain.

‘ _ Puny Banner. _ ’ Hulk scoffed.

I choked on my laugh even as I winced.

“Honey?” Tony asked. I waved him off. “Fine. I’m fine.” I glanced at Hulk. “That wasn’t nice.”

Hulk crossed his arms.  _ ‘So _ ?’

I barely flinched that time. I was getting better at hiding my reaction at least. “So, maybe if you were nicer to ‘puny Banner’ he’d let you out more often.”

Bruce choked.

Hulk eyed me interestedly. I continued. “But you know what that means, right? No smashing.”

Hulk snarled and I felt the beginning of a nosebleed forming, but I ignored it. “Come on, big guy. For me?”

Hulk watched me with narrowed eyes while I did my best to look innocent. Eventually, he gave me a sharp nod. I smiled. “I’ll tell him.” I promised.

I turned to Bruce. “He promises not to smash anything. You can let him out now. I’ll play with him.”

Bruce turned a disbelieving gaze on Tony. Tony glanced from me to Bruce and back again. Eventually, he pulled me off the couch and onto his lap. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and snuggled into him as turned to Bruce. “Go ahead. I had the penthouse reinforced after your run in with Loki anyway. Better to try it here than anywhere else.” He pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

Bruce looked like he was going to be sick. I smiled at him softly and used the line on Hulk against him too. “Please Bruce, for me? I promise it will be okay.”

Bruce watched me, just as intently as Hulk had and I willed him to see the truth in my eyes. I knew what I was asking him. The loss of control was not something that would come easily to anyone. But I knew Hulk was more than what Bruce knew him as. The two needed to find common ground or they’d never be able to live in unison.

For a moment, I didn’t think he would, Hulk didn’t either based on the agitated way he was shaking his head about, but then, Bruce nodded.

Tony’s hold on me tightened as Bruce took a few more steps away from us and let out a deep breath. Just like that, his muscles started swelling and a green tint colored his skin. In near silence, he changed from ‘puny Banner’ to ‘the Incredible Hulk’. It was a beautiful thing to see.

As the translucent form of Hulk finally became clear and Banner’s faded to almost nothing, I climbed out of Tony’s arms, dancing out of the way when he tried to snatch me back. I walked up to Hulk and smiled. “Nice to meet you in real life.” I said, reaching forward and grabbing his hand. He blinked at me and let me cradle his much larger hand in mine. He glanced between our two hands before he glanced up at me and his lips curled into a gentle smile. “There it is.” I said softly. I turned to Banner’s ‘ghost’. “It’s it beautiful?” I asked.

Bruce was glancing between me and Hulk with a befuddled expression. I chuckled. My chuckle turned into a yelp as Hulk reached down and picked me up. He settled me on one of his shoulders before he turned to Tony who was staring at us with wide eyes and a panicked expression. He looked like he was only seconds away from calling a suit. I propped an elbow on top of Hulk’s head and glanced at him. “How ‘ya doin’, baby?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Tony. Angel's going to be the death of him.


	29. The Next Phase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's POV

I was losing my mind. I was losing my damn mind. I watched as Angel draped herself over the top of Hulk’s head like a hat and I would have sworn I’d died at some point. This was my hell. “Honey . . .” I started as I took a step forward. I clutched my fingers into fists to avoid reaching out for her as Hulk started shifting agitatedly. “Come down from there.”

While I was trying not to picture all the ways Hulk could snap her like a twig, Angel stared at me blankly like there was nothing wrong. I had to resist the urge to wring her pretty little neck. “No. I’m fine here.” She shifted on Hulk’s shoulder so she could lean her cheek against his head. “He’s soft.” She said, reaching out to run her hand through his hair. My eyes nearly popped straight out of my skull as Hulk started . . . yup . . . he was _purring._ Like a damn cat.

“I think I need to sit down.” I mumbled. I sidestepped to the coffee table and sat down. Hard.

Angel chuckled before she turned to Hulk and murmured something too soft for me to hear. Hulk nodded and reached up to help her off his shoulder as soon as she was down she glanced at something just to the side of him. “You too, Bruce.” She murmured.

Hulk shifted his head side to side, cracking something in his neck, before he turned and wandered down the hallway.

What in the hell was I even seeing?

I jumped when someone grabbed at my hands. Angel didn’t say anything, though I saw her lips curl up in a smile as Hulk wandered away. “He’s not going to break anything.” She said soothingly as she squeezed my hands.

My head shot in the direction of Hulk as he started opening doors down the hallway. “You say that now, Honey . . .”

Angel’s hands left mine only to reach up and cup the sides of my face. “Do you trust me?”

I nodded without any hesitation. Of course I did. She was my entire world. 

Her thumbs rubbed at the bags under my eyes and a gentle smile touched her lips. She leaned forward and kissed me softly before she pulled away. “He’s not the monster you’ve seen. There’s more to him than that.” She paused a moment, her brow furrowing as though she was thinking about something. “He’s a lot like you, actually.”

I choked. “He’s NOT . . .”

Angel laughed, interrupting my tirade. “He is, actually. You go full ‘Hulk’ too when your overprotective instincts kick in.”

It took a second for her words to make sense. “You mean . . .”

She smiled again. “He’s very protective of his lil’ buddy Bruce, even if he doesn’t seem like it.”

I stared at her in shock and she only laughed again. Eventually, she sat back and looked at me. “Why did you bring Bruce up here, Tony?” She asked, a knowing look in her eye.

My gaze trailed past her to the hallway where I could hear Hulk muttering to himself and objects being moved around. After a moment, where I sat waiting to hear the tell-tale sounds of something breaking, I turned back to her. “I’ve been working on the Casper equation.” I started. Angel’s lips curled up into a rueful expression and I knew what she was going to say before she even said it. “I know what you’ve said, Honey, but I can’t let this go. Not when it’s you.”

Angel sighed at me before she moved to her feet and climbed into my lap. I wrapped my arms around her and she did the same. We held each other impossibly tight but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The only times I knew she was safe were the times she was in my arms and I still hadn’t recovered from her last interactions with the bastards. They’d lived their lives. Why couldn’t they let her live hers?

“And Bruce? Is he helping you now too?”

I nodded against her head. “We realized that you could see Hulk even though he’s not exactly dead.” A grunt from down the hall sounded, proving my point.

Angel shook her head. “He’s not dead . . . but he’s not undead either . . . he’s . . . in between.”

“What does that mean?”

Angel sighed and shrugged. “There’s a lot even I don’t know, Tony. But I know that there’s more than life and death. There’s this in between place people can end up too. It’s where . . .” She sighed and my arms tightened around her on instinct. “It’s where I went after Happy.”

“ _Honey_.” It was a broken cry from my lips and she pulled away so she could take one of my hands and press it against her chest. I felt the soothing beats of her heart and leaned my forehead against hers. She ran her hand through my hair and pressed a kiss to the back of my head.

“I’m okay. I’m here. I’m fine.” She chanted.

For a long minute, the two of us just sat there, relishing the fact that we _were_ there. Together. 

Then, she continued. “Hulk and Banner switch off. They’re not dead. I don’t think they even see the dead when they’re in that realm, let alone remember being there. But that’s why I see them, Tony. Listen, you are a genius. You’ve discovered things no other human being on this earth ever could have.” She tapped on my arc reactor as she said it. “But I don’t think this is a problem even you can solve. The dead don’t want to be seen, Tony. Trust me. I don’t think there’s anything on this earth that could change that unless they were ready to be seen.”

There was an ominous tone in those final words that made me want to call a suit and bustle her off to some forsaken island in the middle of the pacific where no one could reach her ever again, but I wasn’t her jailor and even I knew there were somethings you just couldn’t do in the name of love. I pulled away. “I need to protect you.” I whispered.

She smiled at me sadly. “And _I_ need to protect _you_.” She echoed. “This isn’t the way to do it.”

I nodded my head grudgingly and pushed away the problem for now. I wasn’t going to lie to myself and claim that it would be forever, I knew myself better than that. I wouldn’t be able to rest until I knew that the Happy incident wouldn’t happen again. I could grudgingly accept there would be times when her skills would be necessary. Hell, I’d benefited from them myself, hadn’t I? But I’d be damned if they were going to take her away from me like they had after Happy. I wouldn’t survive it again.

I sighed and nodded my head again. “Okay, Honey.” I murmured, leaning close to press a kiss against her forehead. “We do it your way.” The silent _for now_ echoed in my head, but I was smart enough not to voice that thought out loud. “Now could you go get Bruce back? I need his help on the Iron Legion problem.”

Angel laughed as she slid off my lap. “Okay, but I want one on one time with my big green teddy bear sometime soon. You know, when Bruce doesn’t have a world to protect.” She winked at me and skipped down the hallway in search of her ‘big green teddy bear’ as I mouthed the foreign sounding words behind her.

What in the hell had my life become?

Your POV--------------

I wasn’t sure what Steve’s guardian angels were, exactly. Clearly they had been people of influence at one point in their lives because the same held true now. There hadn’t been head or tail of Hoss for months since I’d woken up in Tony’s makeshift hospital bed and Steve’s guardian angels had sent him packing. I wanted to be thrilled about it, but there was a sinking feeling that was growing bigger by the day that something big was coming and Hoss was going to bring it right to my door.

In the months that followed my last interaction with Hoss; Steve and I had plenty of time to spend together which meant that I had plenty of time to interact with his guardians. There was something about them that drew me to him like a moth to a flame. I blamed it on their enigmatic nature. I hadn’t had any experience with guardian angels. Not personally anyway. My curious mind couldn’t get enough. Lucky for me, Tony understood curious minds better than most. He didn’t necessarily like my growing friendship with the man who his father had loved more than him his whole life, but he put up with it. For me. And my curiosity. Or at least that’s what he told himself. I didn’t bother to correct him because I knew something that he didn’t. Steve Rogers had fallen in love, but it wasn’t with me. Whoever held his heart, would have it for the rest of Steve’s life. It was that deep rooted love that Steve and I had most in common because no matter what happened to Tony, he had my heart too. This life and the next. Even in the space in between. No one else would compare to the love I had for the man who had saved me in so many different ways. 

Tony himself had been busy. Busy building the Iron Legion and busy keeping Natasha away from me. Not that I minded. There was something too knowing in her eyes whenever she looked at me. It was a look that only grew every time I got distracted by Steve’s guardians or her poltergeists in the middle of a conversation. Or whenever my nose started bleeding in reaction to the throbbing headaches I got anytime any of the dead tried talking to me. Tony trusted her. To an extent. I did too. But it was with no small amount of relief that Natasha told Tony that she and Steve were leaving. They’d been reassigned to DC on official SHIELD business. I didn’t mind that Natasha was leaving, but I was sad to see Steve leave. We’d grown closer than I’d realized over the past few months. 

“Make sure you call every week so I know you’re okay.” I said, pulling him into a hug in front of the quinjet Fury had sent.

Steve chuckled in my stranglehold. “I will if you will.” He said.

I pulled away and slunk back into Tony’s arms. He immediately wrapped his around my waist, and pulled me close. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head, staking his claim, before he glanced back at Steve. “If you ever need anything . . .” He trailed off.

Steve smiled. “You’ll be my first call.” He said.

The two smiled tensely at each other before Steve nodded to himself. He sent me one last smile before he saluted and joined Natasha aboard the jet. I watched until it had flown out of sight and then I turned to Tony with what I hoped was a saucy smile on my face. “So, ‘mom and dad’ are gone and I have the house to myself . . .”

Tony’s breath hitched.

I opened my mouth to say more, but I didn’t have a chance. The next thing I knew, I was over Tony’s shoulder as he raced for the bedroom. I laughed the whole way there.

I hoped it would last but that sinking feeling never went away. 

Less than a month later, I found out why.

“Angel?” JARVIS’ voice called. I glanced up from the book I was reading on the couch. “I think you’ll want to see this.”

The TV lit up to show dozens of news reports all announcing Captain Steven Grant Rogers as a traitor to the country and a man on the run.

My book fell from my shocked fingers as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing. I had less than a second to process it before a face I’d hoped to never see again popped up out of nowhere.

“ _We need to go. Now_.”

Hoss was back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun-dun-DUNNNNNN!!!
> 
> XD


	30. Saving Steve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

I shook my head and tried to turn my attention back to the screens but Hoss took another step towards me. His face was painted in panic like I’d never seen before and my heart nearly stopped in my chest at the thought. What was bad enough that the dead would fear it?

“ _ We don’t have time. We must leave now.” _ The force of his words hit me hard. My nose started dripping almost immediately. Fear gripped me tightly and refused to let go.

“ _ Now! _ ” His ghostly voice ordered.

Without pausing to give it another thought, I was already rushing for the elevators. Hoss kept pace with me, his eyes glazed over as though he were looking or maybe even listening to something else. I jammed my finger against the lobby button in the elevator, a desperate rush filling me.

“Angel . . .” JARVIS started.

Hoss snapped out of his reverie and snapped his eyes to me. “ _ You will tell him you are going to get some air. You will tell him you are overwhelmed. Your lover has no part in this story. He cannot be there and you know he will follow.” _

Tears poured down my cheeks as Hoss’s words drove daggers into my skull. The pain was nearly unbearable, but the tears it caused made the lie all the more believable. “I . . . I just need some air, JARVIS. I’ll be back soon.” I tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace.

JARVIS hummed, but if he said anything after that, I didn’t notice as the headache that was forming went into overdrive. I pulled a pack of tissues out of my pocket and started mopping up my face as the elevator careened to a stop at the lobby. As soon as the doors were open, I was racing out to the street.

“ _Airport.”_ Hoss said.

I didn’t think as I held out a hand and flagged down a taxi. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long. I jumped into the cab and ordered him to the nearest airport while I fumbled for my wallet. Since moving in with Tony, I hadn’t needed to pickpocket to survive like I had in the past when I only had the ghosts helping me. Tony had given me my own credit card within days of meeting him. It was a level of trust that I cherished, but it hadn’t been enough to completely stop my pickpocket habit.

Lucky for me, I hadn’t. I took one look at the card and knew that the second Tony noticed I was missing, he’d check the tapes and see me get into a taxi. The bank statements would be next. It would be almost too easy for him to find me if that were the case and I had a feeling I wouldn’t like the consequences if he showed up before Hoss was done with me. I pushed the card back into its slot and reached for the wad of cash I had on me. “Please hurry.” I ordered the driver.

He glanced back at me with a clear amount of suspicion on his face, but I waved the wad of cash in my hand and his expression cleared up pretty quickly after that. He gunned it for the airport.

Hoss raced ahead of me the second we arrived. “ _ Not much time.” _ He murmured, sending more shooting pains through my head. “ _ You  _ must _ be on the next flight to Washington D.C. or all is lost.” _

“Want to . . . tell me . . . what’s . . . wrong?” I panted by his side. Black spots were starting to form in my vision. I couldn’t tell if it was the blood loss or the pounding headache. 

Hoss didn’t mention either way. Instead he pointed jerkily towards the ticket desk. I had no choice but to obey the silent command.

I approached the woman working the desk who gave me a barely disguised look of disgust as she took in my blood soaked tissue. “Can I help you?”

I pretended to look chagrined, but truly, I’d seen worse in my life as a dead whisperer. “Next flight to D.C. please.” I said. She turned to her computer and typed something.

“Leaving in thirty minutes at gate C. You’ll have to run to catch it.” 

I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. How much?” 

“One thirty-three.”

I nodded my head and reached into my wallet. “Do you mind taking it? Sorry, I just have this . . .” I set my wallet on the counter and then gestured at my face. She grimaced but nodded and reached for the wallet. 

“Cash or card?”

“Cash please.”

She pulled out the bills she needed and counted out my change before she stuck the change back into the creased leather. “Have a nice flight.” She murmured before she turned her attention away from me. “Gate C is that way.”

I took in the general direction, made eye contact with Hoss and then started jogging. “This better be life or death, Hoss.” I groaned as my lungs started struggling to keep up and my brain threatened to explode.

“ _ Isn’t it always with us?”  _ The joke fell flat as the two of us raced through the airport. By the time I reached the gate, I had seconds to spare and felt like I was on the verge of becoming one of the dead myself.

I barely had time to sink into my chair and buckle myself in before the pain reached an all time high and thankfully, darkness took over.

_ “Wake up. We don’t have much time.”  _ Hoss’s voice was the first thing I heard when I woke up. Unfortunately, he was the last person I wanted to wake up to. The missing part of my soul felt especially absent now without Tony here beside me. We’d made a habit of him always being the one to wake me up after an ‘episode’ and not having him here now made me want to cry but I forced the tears back as I opened my eyes and forced myself to face reality. I was strong enough to do this on my own. It was nothing I hadn’t done before. Then, I’d go home and move right into Tony’s arms. I hoped he didn’t have anything planned for the rest of his life because I wasn’t planning on leaving. Ever.

I reached a shaking hand up to check my nose and found it was dripping again. I ignored the looks of revulsion on the faces of the passengers next to me as they cowered away from the sight of a little blood and reached into my pocket to pull more tissues out. I brought them to my nose and stemmed the bleeding just as the flight attendants announced that we could disembark. I was one of the first people off the plane.

Hoss followed me easily as we tore through the airport, towards the exits. “ _ You need a car. _ ” He said. I didn’t need further instructions but I also didn’t have enough cash on me to rent a car. Hoss seemed to know exactly what I was thinking. “ _ Your lover can’t know where you are. _ ” He reminded me. “ _ He has no part to play in this. _ ”

I swallowed my frustration as I raced towards the streets. Taxi’s lined the road just outside the airport, but I ignored them. I glanced at the signs around me and headed straight for the overnight parking lots. “I need one with a key.” I murmured.

Hoss glanced at me, and then in the direction I was heading and nodded. In the next second, he disappeared. Ahead of me, I saw dozens of the dead appear out of thin air as they began sweeping the lot, looking for a car I could borrow. 

The second Hoss disappeared, the pounding in my head eased a fraction and I sucked in a relieved breath even as I hurried after him. The sinking feeling that had been a part of me for months was screaming at me now. It  _ couldn’t _ be a coincidence that I was in D.C. only hours after Steve had been declared public enemy number one. What had he gotten himself into? More importantly, why the rush?

I swallowed back my bites of fear as one of the ghosts waved at me. I jogged towards the sickly looking old man as he pointed at the ancient looking blue oldsmobile next to him. I nodded my thanks as I opened the door. I slid inside and the ghost reached in after me and pointed at the visor. I opened it, and the keys fell into my lap. I nodded my thanks again. He gave me a grim smile before he and the rest of the ghosts in the parking lot vanished.

I turned the key, starting the car. Hoss appeared beside me.

“Where’s Steve?” I asked, cutting straight to the chase.

Hoss shot me a look I couldn’t quite decipher as I pulled out of the parking lot. I seemed to have shocked him into silence.

Eventually, he turned his attention to the road. “ _ Take the next left.” _

Blood dripped down my face.

I ignored it.

Twenty minutes into the drive, I looked up and my heart nearly froze in my chest as three giant aircraft carriers rose into the sky. Hoss’s eyes took in the sight with grim acceptance. “ _ Take a right _ .” He urged. A lump rose in my throat.

“Steve’s on one of those?” I asked fearfully. Even from here, I could see the giant guns manning the decks.

“ _ Faster _ .”

I slammed the pedal to the floor and shot down the road. Fifteen minutes later, explosions rocked the air. My eyes flicked in the direction of the flying ships as they turned their guns on one another and fired. “ _ FASTER!!!”  _ Hoss ordered.

I screamed as my vision swam at the pain from the force of Hoss’s screams and I urged the jalopy I was driving to move  _ faster _ . 

“Steve?!” I demanded to know.

Hoss’s eyes were glazed over again and not for the first time I was flooded with righteous anger that I could physically interact with the bastards that ruined my life. I wanted to shake the look off his damn face. “ANSWER ME, HOSS!”

Hoss shook his head once, twice, and then glanced at me with wide, terrified eyes. “ _ Pull over.” _

I slammed on the brakes and swerved to the side of the road. I swung around, ready to give Hoss a piece of my mind, but there was a detached, fearful look in his eyes. “ _ Save them.” _ He ordered. Then he just . . . disappeared, leaving me very alone on the side of the road.

I swallowed hard, the look in Hoss’s eyes sure to haunt me for the rest of my life. 

Something washed over me then. A feeling I’d never felt before. Mechanically, I reached for the keys of my pilfered vehicle and turned the ignition off. I opened the door in a detached sort of way. I closed the door behind me and looked at the woods in front of me. Distantly, I could hear water lapping at a beach. The wind rustled the leaves above me. Birds chirped. Traffic shot past behind me. None of it mattered. Something pulled at me and I took one step after another deeper into the woods. A sense that my entire life had been leading me towards this moment filled me. Something bigger than me had been spinning the webs for years and now, the final stitch.

I was powerless to resist the draw as I moved further away from the safety of the car and further into the woods. It wasn’t until I saw something flash in front of me that I froze in place. A man, soaking wet, eyed me with an expressionless face that could have been carved from granite. I knew without a doubt he was one of the reasons I’d been drawn here but he wasn’t what captured my attention. On either side of him, two ghostly figures stood. One with a cute smirk that didn’t reach his tired eyes, dressed in clothes straight out of a history book, and the other, more rabid dog than man with murder burning brightly in his eyes. “Bucky?” I asked, staring hard at the sad ghost beside him. I’d recognize that smirk anywhere. Steve had showed me pictures of his fallen friend and often spoke of him. “Bucky Barnes?”

The sad man shot me a wide-eyed look and something flared in the eyes of the flesh and blood man before me. I took a step closer and he tensed. Something else flashed in his eyes as the murder-hungry man on his otherside started snarling. I threw my hands up in innocence as blood started dripping down my nose. Dammit, had I not bled out yet?

I kept my gaze on the sad version of Bucky Barnes as I bent towards the ground and placed the keys of the car I’d stolen on the forest floor. “I know you.” I said softly, keeping my voice as gentle as possible. “Steve loves you.” Sad Bucky’s eyes watered as his flesh and blood counterpart traced my movements with careful consideration. “Steve Rogers loves you.” I repeated firmly as I stood back up. “Something happened to you but it doesn’t need to keep happening to you.” I nodded down at the keys. “Take my car. It’s parked on the road.” I stepped to the right, circling the keys on the ground. The man and his ghosts circled opposite me. “I stole it. It doesn’t have a tracker on it. Please. Save yourself.”

Sad Bucky glanced at me as his flesh and blood counterpart bent to pick up the keys, his eyes fixed firmly on me. I kept myself still as he straightened and took a step backwards.

“Why?” The man asked, his voice gruff, unused.

I smiled sadly. “I know what it is to be lost.” I said simply.

The man stared at me for a long moment. It looked like he was trying to decide if he could trust me or not. Eventually, he nodded, turned his back, and fled. The second he was out of sight, I dropped my hands to my sides and raced for the bank of the river. Hoss had said I had to save  _ them. _

I raced to the beach and yelped as I saw Steve lying motionless on the beach. His guardian angels were frantically trying to breath life back into him, but they couldn’t. Death was beyond even them. Unless they had me. One of them glanced up as I raced towards them, clear relief in his eyes as he saw me. “ _ Help us. _ ” He pleaded.

I nodded and dropped to my knees. They didn’t hesitate to reach out and place their hands on me. I felt their power well up within me as time seemed to slow to a stop around us. “Come back to us, Steve.” I whispered. Then, I bent my head and breathed  _ life _ back into him.

I pulled away, my head spinning as time righted itself and Steve bolted upright. His head whipped around wildly, confusion crossing his face until he saw me. My eyes were already slipping shut, my body swaying, ready to topple. “Doll?!” He demanded.

Tears slid down my face, but I managed a smile. “Nice to have you back, Cap.” I murmured, letting my body slump over. Steve reached over and caught me up in his arms before I could face plant on the rocks under me.

“What did you do?” He breathed, brushing the hair out of my face.

I shook my head and let the tears flow freely now. I knew what came next and I knew that this time, I didn’t want to wake up alone. “I want Tony.” I cried.

The last thing I saw was Steve’s panicked expression as he yelled at me to stay with him and the gentle smiles of his guardian angels. “ _ You did good, doll. _ ” One whispered. “ _ We’ll take it from here. Rest now. _ ”

I closed my eyes and slept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well if Steve didn't know about her before . . . amiright?
> 
> So . . . thoughts? Prophecies? Conspiracy theories? XD


	31. Waking Up (Again)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

“. . . last time, _I_ _don’t know.”_ The voice was angry but it sounded so familiar.

“You can say it a thousand times, and I still won’t believe that, Stark.” Another angry voice echoed around me. “I was  _ dead. _ Or as good as. What  _ happened _ to me? What did she  _ do?” _

Memories started coming back to me then. Reading my book at the tower. Hoss’s arrival. My mad dash to D.C. with no idea what I was about to step into. Mr. Barnes. Steve. 

Steve!  
I gasped and bolted up in bed, my heart pounding fiercely. Alarms went off around me as I scrambled to push off the blankets keeping me cocooned to the bed. Arms reached out to try and stop me, but I fought them off. I had to get to Steve. Steve was hurt. He was dying!

“Angel! Stop! It’s me! It’s me!” Tony’s voice cut through my blind panic and I froze. The fight left me entirely as I glanced up into his shining eyes.

“Tony?” My voice cracked.

Tears welled in his eyes as he nodded only a second before he reached around and pressed me tightly to his chest. A sob ripped from my lips as I held him just as tightly to mine. Through all the hell I’d been through, all I’d wanted was for him to be with me and here he was.

Another sob ripped out of me as his lips brushed against my forehead. “I’ve got you, Angel. I’ve got you.”

We stayed like that for only a moment before someone cleared their throat politely. I pulled away from Tony quickly and rubbed the tears away from my eyes before I glanced up to see Steve standing in the room, staring at me with a strange look on his face. “Hi,  _ Angel.” _ I gulped at the odd emphasis he placed on Tony’s nickname for me. The secret was very clearly out of the bag now.

An awkward tension filled the room. Thankfully, Tony was here to help break it. Or at least, to distract from it. Ignoring Steve completely, he turned to me. “You had me scared there, Honey.” There was a different kind of emphasis on my nickname this time as Tony reached out and cupped the sides of my face in his hands. I could see the questions burning in his eyes and knew that we needed to have a serious talk sometime soon about what had happened, but neither of us were willing to get deeper into it than necessary with Steve standing there.

“Where are we?” I asked, changing the subject.

“George Washington Hospital.” Tony said gently. “Steve brought you. You’ve been out of it for about a day.”

My eyes widened in surprise. I had never been knocked out for so short a time before. Not after saving someone . . . I glanced over Tony’s shoulder where Steve’s guardian angels were filling the room. They glanced at me with knowing smiles on their faces. 

So that’s what was so special about guardians.

My eyes flicked over to the other side of the room where Hoss was being pressed into a corner, the butt of one of the soldier's guns pressed firmly against his chest. His eyes met mine, just as expressionless as usual. I sighed, my shoulders slumping. I suddenly felt very, very exhausted. 

Tony picked up on it and gently nudged me back down until I was supine again. “Come on, Honey. You’re still weak. You need to rest.”

I reached for his hand as he made to pull away. “I want to go home.” I begged softly.

A grimace crossed Tony’s face. He sighed. “Sorry, Honey. I brought Dr. Chavez with me. Three comas in less than a year? She wants to keep you for observation.”

“I’m  _ fine. _ ” I argued. The kind of sick I was couldn’t be fixed by her kind of science at least; no matter how much Tony and I might want it to.

Tony’s eyes softened. “Just let her run her tests. Please? For me?”

I saw it then. The anxiety that I’d been causing him. I saw it in the new lines that were fanning out beside the corner of his eyes. I saw it in the way his shoulders slumped a little more than they had a week ago. I even saw it in the grey that was dotting his hair where there hadn’t been any when we’d met. He had given up so much to be with me. Couldn’t I sacrifice a little comfort for him now?

“Okay, Tony.” I agreed.

He nodded with a grateful smile. He glanced over his shoulder and caught Steve’s attention and the smile faded off his face. “I can stay . . .” His tone of voice indicated that he was lying.

I smiled ruefully as I guessed what was calling him away. “The board?”

He grimaced. “They’re not happy about the SHIELD situation.” He acknowledged. “Stark Industries was tied pretty heavily to it. Pepper’s doing what she can but . . .”

“It’s okay, Tony. Do what you need to do.”

Tony glanced from me to Steve and back again. I knew what he was afraid of, but based on the look Steve was giving me, there was no use for it. This conversation was a long time coming. Might as well get it over with now.

“It’s okay, Tony.” I repeated. “Pick me up when they discharge me?”

Tony nodded. “Just tell me what time, Honey. I’ll be there.”

I smiled at him. 

He leaned down to press a kiss against my lips and then, with one last look at me, he was gone.

I stared at the open doorway for another few seconds before I turned to Steve with a sigh. “What do you want to know?” I asked.

Steve crossed his arms over his chest. His expression was guarded as he watched me. Though he couldn’t see them, his guardians were offering me their silent support behind him. “What did you do?” There was a hardness to his tone that hadn’t been there before but it wasn’t necessarily angry.

I sighed and glanced down at the hospital blanket covering my legs. I was getting awfully tired of finding myself here time and time again. “I think you already know.”

Steve sat down in the chair beside me and let out a long breath. “How?”

I shrugged tiredly. “I wish I knew.”

Steve pondered it for a minute. “That’s what happened a few weeks ago, wasn’t it? You brought someone back.”

I nodded. “It takes a lot out of me . . . as you can imagine.” I gave him a rueful smile that he didn’t return. Instead, he started shaking his head as he tried to wrap his brain around it all. 

“And Tony?”

“Him too.” I breathed. “The Battle of New York. He . . . he didn’t make it.”

Steve’s eyes closed and he slumped against his chair. The simple motion made him look so much older than he was. I couldn’t help myself as I held out a hand and set it on his knee, gently. Steve’s eyes flew open and he glanced at me.

“The first time it happened, I was seven. My grandfather had fallen down the stairs and my parents were on the phone. I didn’t understand what my imaginary friends were asking me to do.”

“Imaginary friends?” Steve asked.

I tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace instead as I glanced at the dead surrounding us. Steve’s angels smiled at me with a tender sort of pity in their eyes. Hoss’s eyes flashed with something I couldn’t quite identify.

“Yes. Well, when you tell your parents about the friends they can’t quite see, that’s the explanation you get.” I said, turning my attention back to Steve.

“And these ‘imaginary friends’? Are they still around now?”

I nodded my head. “But I know what they are now.” I whispered. Steve glanced at me expectantly. “They’re the dead, Steve. Ghosts. Angels. Poltergeists. They have lots of different names but it doesn’t matter. They’re all people who have moved on but haven’t quite moved on-on.” I narrowed my eyes on his Angels. “In some cases, I wonder if they ever plan to.”

A tall black man with kind eyes gave me a cheeky smile and a wink before he wandered closer to Steve and hovered a hand over his back.  _ “Not before this one does.” _

My nose started dripping, but I managed to hold back the flinch as it felt like my brain was being ripped apart. Hoss growled at the men from his corner as Steve held out a box of tissues for me to take. Steve’s angels all made zipping motions across their lips before they grinned at me like assholes.

Steve fidgeted as I cleaned my face. “You can see dead people.” He summarized. I nodded. He glanced around. “There are some in here right now, aren’t there?” He asked.

I hesitated as I balled up the bloodied tissue in my hand. I glanced at the ghost I thought of as the leader and he tipped his head towards me gently. I took that to be permission to tell Steve the whole truth and I sighed. I turned my attention back to Steve. “Yeah. There are. You seem to have quite the posse running around with you, Steve. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many of the same ghosts running around the same person all the time. Though I shouldn’t be surprised. Steven Grant Rogers is a handful at the best of times. No wonder you need five entire Guardian Angels.”

The smiles on men surrounding Steve grew exponentially and took on a mischievous quirk as they turned their attention back to their charge to see his reaction. Steve didn’t disappoint. He jumped to his feet and growled. “I do NOT need protection.”

The men threw back their heads and cackled. My nose started bleeding, but I ignored it, I was smiling too.  _ “Doesn’t need protection but sure needed to be brought back from the dead, aye boys?” _ One chuckled.

_ “That’s twice now. Man’s unkillable.” _ Another agreed.

_ “Only because Angelique got there on time.” _ Hoss hissed. I flinched at his harded tone and the pain it caused, but mostly I was shocked. I’d never seen him so upset before. “ _ She’s only here because you didn’t do _ your _ jobs.” _

The mood in the room instantly plummeted as Steve glanced around us wearily, unaware of what was truly going on. I swallowed hard. “Steve.” I murmured, drawing all the eyes in the room once more. “I don’t know why I can do what I do. It’s not exactly something I can control. I bring back people whose time hasn’t come yet. I’m glad I was able to save you. I’d do it again. But maybe, don’t make it a habit? Your Guardian Angels have enough on their plate as is.”

Steve was silent for a long time, but it wasn’t him I’d really been talking to. One by one his ghostly soldiers tipped their heads at me in recognition and I knew that they knew just how much Steve had come to mean to me too. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him now just like anyone else I’d call a friend. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me who they are?” He eventually sighed, sinking back into his seat.

I glanced at them before I glanced at him and back again. “I . . . I don’t know their names.” I admitted.

_ “And you don’t need to.” _ Hoss growled.

I shook my head, ignoring him. Steve’s Guardians just smiled like the cats who ate the canary. “But . . . there’s something about them . . .” I shook my head again and tried to think. “They’re soldiers, I know that for sure.”

Steve’s head shot up and he glanced at me with something burning in his eyes that I couldn’t identify. “Soldiers? And there’s five of them?” He demanded, sharply. 

I nodded, eyes wide.

“I’ll be back.” Steve raced out of the room, his Guardians reluctantly following after him. I glanced at his back in shock before Hoss cleared his throat, drawing my attention to him.

_ “Now . . . _ ” He started. He didn’t get to finish.

My attention shot back to the door as I heard it click shut leaving me and Natasha Romanov alone together for the first time since we’d met. Beside her, two of her poltergeists sputtered and raged. I reached a tissue up to my freshly bleeding nose, keeping an eye on the spectors as they clutched at ghostly weapons. Their eyes flicked to me as though noticing me for the first time, and they narrowed. They took two steps closer to me before Natasha’s voice cut through the thick tension in the room. “Hello, kotenok.” She murmured, her eyes blank. “I think we need to talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone told me that I end chapters a little cliffhanger-y and I denied it. This one doesn't exactly disprove the theory, and I'm sorry for that! It was getting pretty long and and Nat, Steve and Angel still have some stuff they need to discuss before ULTRON can kick off (though we will have a break in between.) This was, I swear, the best place to break it up.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading and sticking with me cliffhangers and all. I have some big school stuff to do this week so I might not get the next update out for a few days, but trust me! You'll have it soon enough. Even I'm excited to see just how much Nat knows about what's going on and what exactly she's going to do about it. 
> 
> See you next time!


	32. Call Me Nat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

I swallowed hard. “What do you want to talk about?” I asked, watching as she moved into the room with a predatory kind of grace. She sank into the chair Steve had just vacated and scanned her eyes over the room.

Hoss sneered at her, but didn’t say anything as he moved closer towards me. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was almost trying to protect me.

Natasha’s eyes seared into my very soul as she watched me carefully. There was something all to knowing in her eyes that I didn’t like. I tugged at the hospital blanket that had pooled around my waist in an effort to cover myself from her probing gaze. A shudder went through me when she finally glanced away.

“Steve shouldn’t have survived what he did.” She said simply. “A fall from that height when he’d already lost so much blood . . . I don’t buy it.”

“Maybe he has Guardian Angel’s watching out for him.” I offered, giving her as close to the truth as I was willing to give. Tony’s fear of Natasha finding out what I was still weighed heavily on my mind and based on the way Hoss was glaring at her, I wasn’t the only one.

“You and I both know it’s more than that, don’t we?” Natasha said, cocking her head. I glanced down. Natasha leaned forward and caught my eye anway. “You’re a Spasitel’, aren’t you?”

The foreign word didn’t mean much to me, but Hoss seemed to know what it meant. His entire body went completely rigid except for his arm which shot out as though he could forever choke the words right out of her. My eyes widened at the display and I glanced at her with a new sense of fear weighing heavily on me. “What’s a Spasitel’?” I asked. She opened her mouth and somehow, before she’d even said the word, I knew what she was going to say.

“Savior.”

I swallowed hard again, willing Hoss to turn around to look at me. What the hell did that mean? What were Steve, Tony and I being  _ saved _ for???

Natasha’s eyes flicked to Hoss’s form and back again so quickly I wasn’t sure I’d actually seen it. An overwhelming urge to get her attention away from my ghostly guide and occasional torturer. I licked my lips. “What’s a Savior?” I asked dumbly.

Her lips curled in a barely there smile. “Don’t play dumb with me, kotenok. It’s not your style.” She warned.

I leaned my head against my pillows and stared up at the ceiling blinking away tears. The past forty-eight hours were finally catching up to me, not to mention all my years of life before that. I was just so  _ tired _ of carrying such a huge burden around with me. Why couldn’t I have been born an average jane living the white-picket life anywhere else? “Are you going to tell anyone else?” I asked softly.

Natasha eyed me carefully as she settled back in her own seat. For a long minute, I didn’t think she was going to say anything at all, but finally, “No.” She whispered. 

I glanced at her and she smiled at me then, a real one, one with all her walls down. There was a pain in her eyes that broke my heart almost entirely in two. It was the pain of someone who knew what loss was.

Beside her, the poltergeists that haunted her took a step closer to me. Their eyes had lit up at the sound of that foreign word, and both were practically salivating as they raised their ghostly knives above their heads. 

“ _ NOOOO!”  _ Hoss screamed, lunging for them. His ghostly form collided with the one closest to him and the two disappeared instantly. The second one didn’t hesitate as he brought his ghostly knife swinging downward towards my heart.

Time seemed to slow down as I watched the blade catch in the light. It’s form wavered back and forth as though it was pushing itself into this reality and I had the strangest sense that whatever made up the blade was actually going to kill me, and then, just like that, time snapped back into motion. I didn’t even have a chance to throw my arm up to block the downward swing before Natasha was suddenly in front of me, blocking me from the blow. I watched as the poltergeist completed his swing, just as Natasha threw an arm up. She grunted in pain but before the ghost could move to strike again, Hoss appeared and clamped a hand down, hard, on its shoulder, whisking the other demon away too.

For a split second, I lay frozen in the bed, struggling to catch my breath. 

What the hell had just happened?

Why had they tried to kill me?

WHAT WAS SO DAMN IMPORTANT ABOUT BEING A SAVIOR???

Before I could spend too much time pondering it, the coppery scent of blood hit me. I glanced at Natasha sharply as she climbed off the bed and turned. She was scowling at her arm, where a cut had been sliced into her skin from elbow to wrist. “What the hell?” I murmured, reaching for her instinctively. I reached a hand out and traced the wound and stared in shock as my finger came back coated in blood. “What the  _ hell?!” _ I turned to stare at her with wide eyes. “You can SEE them.” I hissed.

Natasha turned her steady gaze to me and shook her head. “Not like you can, I suspect.”

She tucked her arm into her side, hiding the cut and settled back into her chair like nothing had happened. I collapsed back against my pillows. “What the hell, what the hell, what the hell.” I mumbled. It was too much to take in. I’d never met anyone else who could see the dead the way that I could and they could hurt people now? Was it too much to ask to just deal with living threats trying to kill me? No, now the dead wanted in on it. How was I supposed to survive long enough to help Tony fulfill his destiny if the dead were gunning for me? I had no defenses against them. I’d never needed them before.

Natasha gave me a moment to break down completely before she interrupted. Her voice was gentle and kind as she reached over and took one of my hands in hers. “I have a lot of red in my ledger.” She started, pain flashing across her eyes. I didn’t think it was because of the wound on her arm. “I’ve done a lot of bad things for a lot of bad people. That kind of work leaves . . . skeletons in the closet.”

A sick sort of understanding started dawning on me. “They’re your victims.” I mumbled. “They want revenge.” 

She shrugged a shoulder and leaned back in her chair, putting distance between us. “I think they’re around more often than I see them. I only get glimpses, here or there, but there’s this . . . weight around my shoulders. Always.”

I nodded slowly and watched out of the corner of my eye as Hoss reappeared again and scowled at me viciously. For a brief moment, everything seemed to flash through my mind at once. There were a thousand and one reasons not to trust Natasha with everything I was and could be. But there were at least a dozen reasons why I should and, in my heart of hearts, I felt like I needed to. Natasha was important. More important than Hoss and maybe even the powers that be realized. I could trust her. I just knew it.

Hoss seemed to realize what I was going to do a second before I did it. He lunged at me.

“I see the dead.” I blurted out. 

Time seemed to stop again.

Hoss and Natasha both froze where they were, blank masks sliding across both their faces. It was almost comical. I would have laughed if I hadn’t broken out in a nervous sweat. “I see the dead.” I repeated. “I have for a long time. Sometimes, when someone dies before their time, I can bring them back too.” Natasha’s eyes sharpened and I shook my head quickly. I trusted her, I did, even if I didn’t know why. But there were some things I needed to be clear on right away. “I don’t have control of that part of my powers.” I explained. “The last time I tried bringing someone back from the dead when the dead themselves didn’t give permission - I died too.”

“You’re here now.” Natasha noted.

I nodded slowly. “It’s a long story.”

She blinked at me but didn’t push it further. “Steve?”

I nodded again. “Tony too. It’s how we met.”

Her eyes widened fractionally but I didn’t explain any further. I didn’t seem to need to. As her eyes scanned me up and down, she seemed to put the rest of the pieces of the puzzle together. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Something’s coming, isn’t it?”

I couldn’t help myself as my eyes flashed to Hoss who was pacing angrily at the foot of my bed. He didn’t seem to be paying us any attention as he shook his head with his eyes glazed over.

I turned back to Natasha. “Yes.”

She nodded once. “How bad?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

She nodded her head again. “We’ll figure it out and then we’ll be ready for it.” She vowed.

I nodded my head slowly and risked a hesitant smile at her.

She hesitated only a moment before she returned it with one of her own. “Call me Nat.” She said softly, as she settled further back into her chair and got comfortable. “I have a feeling we’re going to be friends.”

Nat stayed only another hour or two before Steve came rushing back into the room. His eyes were wide and his hair was sticking up all over the place as if he’d been tugging on it. Nat turned to me and smiled softly. “I should go.” She said. “I’ll be seeing you around.” 

I nodded and smiled back as she pushed to her feet and headed for the door. She paused by Steve and whispered to him quietly before she nodded and left the room. Steve stared after her with a strange expression.

“Where did you go in such a hurry?” I asked, drawing his attention back to me.

Steve shook his head and snapped back to the present. He rushed to my bed and pulled out his phone. He played with it for a few minutes before he shoved it in my face frantically. “Are these them?” He demanded.

I went cross eyed trying to look at the photo on his phone before I sighed and pulled it out of his grasp. “Are these who?” I asked, still trying to make sense of what was happening.

Steve tapped on the image. It was a picture of a museum exhibit. A mural of faces stood out against a back wall. In front of it, a display of old World War II uniforms stood on display. “Are these my Guardian Angels?” Steve clarified.

I studied the familiar faces of the mural and then turned a sharp eye to the dead I’d gotten so used to seeing around Steve. They all wore sheepish expressions as they met my eyes one by one. “Yes.” I mumbled, handing Steve back his phone. “Those are your Angels.”

Steve collapsed in the chair beside my bed and let out a long breath. “How long have they been watching me?”

“ _ Since he got back. _ ” One muttered softly, smiling at Steve sadly. “ _ We wouldn’t leave a man behind _ .”

I echoed their words back to Steve and he scoffed. “They left Bucky behind, didn’t they? Don’t tell me they didn’t know he was still alive.”

The soldiers flinched collectively.  _ “He had a different path. We weren’t allowed to follow.” _

I started. “What the hell does that mean?” I demanded.

Steve glanced up and opened his mouth to explain before he saw that I wasn’t looking at him. His jaw snapped shut and he glanced around the room wearily.

_ “We can’t tell you yet, Protector.”  _ The one with the handlebar mustache said softly. “ _ You’ll find out soon enough.” _

I viciously yanked on the tissues, pulling them from the box to hold to my nose as I glared at them all. I was so damned sick of hearing that. I wanted to scream.

“They couldn’t help Bucky, Steve. I don’t know why.” Steve turned his attention to the ground and glared with more vehemence than I’d ever seen him wield before. My heart reached out to him and I sighed. “They did what they could, Steve. Just like I did.”

Steve’s head shot up. “What did you do?” He demanded.

I searched my mind and realized I had never told Steve what had happened just before I found him lying near-dead on the beach of the bay. “Bucky was the one who pulled you out of the water. He was . . . he doesn’t . . .” Steve nodded his head as though he understood what I was trying to say. I continued. “He was trying to run away from it all. I gave him the keys to my car. I told him to save himself.”

Steve’s eyes were glued to me as though I was the answer to the questions of the universe or maybe just the questions of  _ his _ universe. “He got away?” His voice was shaking.

I nodded my head and reached my free hand out to grab his. “He did.” I said. “He’s safe.”

Steve let out a deep breath, one that seemed to ease the weight resting on his shoulders just a little bit. “He’s safe.” He echoed.

I watched him then, seeing him for perhaps the first time. An idea started forming in my gut about Steve’s relationship with his oldest friend, but now wasn’t the time to ask. Instead, I sat there with my hand clutched firmly in Steve’s, both of us lost in our own worlds, neither of us aware of how much our lives had just been permanently altered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poltergeist's oh poltergeist's. You really shouldn't wield anger like a weapon. Someone's bound to get hurt.
> 
> And poor Hoss. He keeps trying to get a moment alone with Angel and it keeps not happening. Someday buddy, someday. XD
> 
> Anyway, thoughts? Prophecies? Things you'd like to see? We have a little break before ULTRON starts so if you have some fluffy requests, now's the time to suggest them XD.
> 
> See you next time!


	33. Needing a New Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for putting up with the sporadic updating guys! We're about 3 chapters away from beginning ULTRON if I can stick to my outline. XD

A man, tall, dark, and handsome, was leaning against a nice looking sports car just outside the hospital doors as a nurse wheeled me outside. She gently smiled at me as she helped me out of the chair and I thanked her before I went running into his arms. “You came.” I said, smiling up at him.

The darkness of Tony’s electric sunglasses faded until I could see his eyes as he smiled down at him, his arms wrapping around my waist. “I told you I would, didn’t I?” He smirked. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my lips that quickly turned from chaste to something . . .  _ more _ . I could feel the fear and the love and the need he had for me in that kiss and I tried to echo it back to him. I wanted him to wrap me in his arms and never let me go.

Maybe he would have, but eventually the sound of a car honking split us apart. Tony glanced around us as though remembering where we were before he leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. “Come on, Honey.” He murmured, leading me to the passenger side of the car. “Let’s get out of here.”

I smiled up at him as he opened the door and helped me inside. “Don’t have to tell me twice. I hate hospitals.”

Tony chuckled. “Don’t think there’s a soul out there that would disagree.” He shut the door and moved back to the driver’s side. He slid in smoothly and turned the key, roaring the engine a few times before he pulled out of the car bay.

I reached over and grabbed one of his hands, twining my fingers through his before I turned my attention out the window. I swallowed hard and my free hand played with the frayed edges of my shorts while I thought about what I needed to tell him. The truth was, I hadn’t told Tony about Nat’s visit or Steve’s realization when I’d called him last night to ask him to come pick me up. It didn’t feel like an ‘over the phone’ kind of conversation. But now I was regretting not having the distance between us. He wasn’t going to take this information well and I wasn’t exactly biting at the chance to reveal it to him in such close quarters.

Then again, this was  _ Tony _ I was talking about. I’d never met anyone smarter than him. Surely he’d understand . . .

I took a deep breath and decided to just spit it out. “Nat stopped by yesterday.” I hoped my tone was as casual as I was trying to make it.

Tony glanced at me wearily. “‘Nat’ did, huh?” He asked.

I swallowed and nodded. “She’d heard what I’d done . . . for Steve.” I added for clarification.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Tony’s free hand tighten around the steering wheel of the car. Internally I started to wince. “She asked about the whole . . . seeing dead people . . . thing.”

Tony slammed on the breaks and jerked the car to the side of the road. A cacophony of car horns and curses sounded around us but he didn’t pay them any attention as he threw the car into park and whipped his head towards me. He ripped his hand out of my grasp and yanked his sunglasses off. “What the  _ hell _ would she know about it?!” He demanded.

I could see a vein jumping at his temple and I sucked in a gasp of breath. I leaned forward and stroked the sides of his face. “Tony. Tony. It’s going to be fine. Shhhh. I’m fine. She’s not going to take me away from you.” The last statement felt like a lie but I ruthlessly pushed the feeling aside. Tony and I were a package deal. Nat, Steve, hell even this mysterious and horrifying Fury himself would keep us apart. It would happen over my cold dead body.

Tony’s eyes fluttered shut as he struggled to get his breathing back under control. He reached up and pressed his hands against mine, keeping my hands pinned to his face. “Honey.” The word was a desperate plea. I wasn’t sure he even knew what he was asking for.

I leaned forward and started peppering his face with small kisses. “She’s not going to do anything.” I risked promising. “She’s not a bad person, Tony. She’s on our side. In fact . . . she saved me from getting stabbed by one of the dead while I was stuck in the hospital.”

Tony froze underneath my hands and I closed my eyes in instant regret.

“She  _ WHAT _ ?!” He demanded. Tony’s hands ran down my arms, flipping them over so he could check for new injuries before they slipped to my thighs to do the same. “They can’t do that. Honey, you said they couldn’t do that . . .”

I reached for his hands again and shook my head. “They couldn’t . . . they don’t . . . Nat’s ghosts aren’t exactly ‘ _ normal _ ’.”

Tony shook his head. “I need more than that, Angel.” He let out a long breath. “Hell, I’m going to need a  _ lot _ more than that. And a drink.”

He turned back to the steering wheel and took a couple of deep breaths before he glanced over and merged back into traffic. 

I took a deep breath myself. “I’ve been around for awhile.” I started. “And I’ve had these . . . powers . . . for as long as I can remember. The dead . . . usually they’re just sort of there. They fade in, they fade out. It’s rare that I see the same ghost twice.”

Tony glanced at me. “Until recently.” He concluded slowly, noticing my tone.

I nodded and smoothed my sweating palms down my thighs. My voice grew quieter. “After . . . after I brought Happy back . . . there’s this one ghost who seems to be following me around. He won’t go away.”

“What does he want?” Tony asked. I could hear the gears grinding in his head as he listened intently. He was desperate to absorb as much of this as he could so he could solve the problem. The only problem was I was beginning to realize that this was a problem he wasn’t going to be able to solve.

“I don’t know.” I said honestly, glancing out the window again. “To help me? I think. In part anyway. He said . . .” I blew out a breath. “He said something big is coming.”

“Something big?”

I nodded slowly.

“Did he say anything else about it?”

I hesitated just a moment before I shook my head. Hoss had never outright told me that Tony’s life would be in danger. I’d inferred it on my own. And it didn’t matter anyway because I would bring him back even if he did die. Ghosts be damned.

“Helpful.” Tony snarked.

A tiny smile curled at the ends of my lips. “Hoss hasn’t gone away. But he’s not the only new change.” I paused a moment, trying to figure out how to explain it to him. “You’ve heard of Guardian Angels and Poltergeists? Although a better name for them is demon I think.”

Tony nodded slowly as though he was trying to absorb it all. I gave him the time he needed. I knew it was a lot. “I’m sorry. This is just . . .” He let out a long breath. “I’d barely wrapped my head around the fact that ghosts were real and now you’re telling me Angels really do exist?” He turned a wry smile my way. “I’m not sure you can lecture me about the accuracy of your name anymore,  _ Angel _ .”

I grinned. “They’re not actual angels and demons, Tony. Just ghosts with . . . day jobs . . . I guess.”

Tony returned my smile at that. He reached for my hands and pressed a kiss to my knuckles. I could feel the small tremors he was doing his best to conceal and knew he wasn’t as unaffected as he was trying to be. “Day jobs, huh?”

“Well Steve’s Guardian Angels work more than nine to five. Granted. But you get what I mean.”

Tony chuckled. “He does like to throw himself right into danger.” Tony noted. “But what about these . . . Poltergeists you mentioned? And what do they have to do with Nat saving you?”

I sighed and shook my head slowly. “That’s the thing . . . they shouldn’t be able to hurt anyone. But . . .” I thought back to the first time I’d seen them and how the vase had rattled in the room. “Anger is a powerful weapon.” I finished quietly, realizing now just how much danger Nat was in on a regular basis. No wonder she always seemed to be awake and alert . . .

Tony glanced at me. “I don’t like this.” He said quietly, waiting until I met his eyes. “Honey, I don’t like that you’re facing this alone.”

I smiled at him sadly. “I know, baby.” I said, leaning towards him so I could press a quick kiss to his cheek. “But what are we going to do about it? Unless you have ghost hunting powers you never told me about?”

Tony shook his head and pulled the hand he was holding close to his chest as he glanced out the windshield. He shook his head. “No.” He breathed. “But I’d search the world over to find someone who does.” He glanced at me. “You’re not fighting this alone anymore.”

I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Hoss sitting there with his arms crossed over his chest, a burning scowl on his face. “But maybe that’s the problem.” I whispered quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Prophecies? Comments? 
> 
> Lemme know!


	34. Getting Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

The rest of the drive was filled with silence. Tony kept his grip on my hand the entire time. I didn’t even attempt to pull away, not that I wanted to. The talk of all the things quite literally haunting us had rattled me more than I cared to admit. If I could, I would walk away from all of it. But I didn’t think the dead would let me if I tried and maybe that was a good thing. I had a feeling that before the end I was going to need the double-edged sword they’d thrust upon me to save Tony’s life and I’d walk through worse than this to be able to do it.

Eventually, the car pulled up to a private airstrip and Tony parked the car. He turned to me and smiled. “Ready to leave? Or did you want to do any sightseeing before we left? I have a feeling you didn’t see much on your way to save the Capcisle from his second near watery death.”

I shook my head and smiled ruefully. “I’d rather go home.” I said.

Tony hummed as he reached for his doorhandle. “Wait a second.” He murmured before he pushed out of the car.

I waited patiently as he crossed the front of the car, came to my side and opened my door. He held his hand out and I gratefully took it so he could help me out of the car. I wasn’t injured, physically, but I still felt like I’d just been put through the wringer. Besides, a little help never hurt nobody. Tony squeezed my hand before he tucked my arm through his and started leading me towards his private jet. He tossed the keys to the sports car at one of the men standing at the foot of the stairs and nodded at him before he helped me climb up. Once inside the plane, he fussed over me until I was comfortably seated and buckled in. I drew the line when he tried to put a sleeping mask over my eyes. “It’s an hour flight, Tony. I’ll be fine.” I grinned.

Tony grumbled under his breath, but tossed the mask onto the empty seat beside me before he settled into his own seat across from me. “Can’t blame a fella for trying.” He said. He paused a moment and made a face before he met my eyes again. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Honey, but you look like hell. You should try to get some shut eye. I can’t have you crashing on me before the next geriatric tries to croak on us.”

His words were teasing but his tone was tinged with worry. I took pity on him. I reached forward and took his hands in mine. “I’d sleep better if I had an actual bed to sleep in. Don’t tell me you wasted money on a private jet without a  _ bed. _ That’s an amateur move, baby.”

That got a grin out of him. “Yeah? You know a lot about the private plane industry? I wasn’t aware you even owned one. Maybe next time, we’ll fly on your dime.”

I smirked. “I thought the saying was; ‘what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours’ so technically, we  _ are _ flying on my dime.”

Tony chuckled. “Hold on there, Angel. I think you skipped a few steps. I don’t remember saying any vows. Or is this your way of proposing to me.”

My smile grew soft as I pulled one of my hands away so I could touch my heart lightly. “Our vows are more binding than that.” I said softly. 

I felt the piece of my soul that he carried  _ sing _ as Tony reached up and touched his own heart. HIs eyes were wet as the two of us smiled at each other. After a moment, Tony cleared his throat. “Touche, Honey.” He murmured. He reached down and unbuckled his seatbelt before he pushed to his feet and unbuckled mine. “Just so happens,  _ your _ dime pays for all your extra’s after all. There’s a bed back here.”

I squeezed his hand as he led me to the back of the jet. He opened the door and pulled me inside a fully furnished bedroom. His hands gently guided me to the bed and tucked me in. As he moved to pull away, I grabbed at his arm. “You’re not staying?” I asked, the softness of the mattress already starting to pull me under.

Tony shook his head and leaned down to press a kiss to my temple. “I’ll be back in a little while. I just want to make sure the pilot knows where we’re going.”

I chuckled, already half-asleep. “Tell him to aim for the tower with the giant ‘A’ on it. Hard to miss.”

I didn’t hear Tony’s response.

Tony’s POV-------------------

She was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow and I was grateful I’d thought to bring this jet instead of one of the others. It was a little bigger and therefore a little slower, but it was also more comfortable.

I smoothed the hair out of her face and smiled as she shifted into my touch. It never failed to amaze me just how much she sought me, even in sleep. It was a feeling I couldn’t quite describe. I was never going to get sick of it. There had been too few times in my life where I’d felt needed. I sure as hell wasn’t going to mess this one up.

I slipped out of the room and shut the door behind me, rubbing at my chest as the part of her I carried with me always cried out in pain. It was habit now, to rub at my chest whenever I had to leave her and it made me want to turn around and spend the next couple of hours holding her close. I still hadn’t gotten over the shock and terror I’d felt when I’d first found out she’d disappeared from the tower again. Searching surveillance hadn’t gotten me anywhere and I was practically pulling my hair out before Nat called saying she’d ended up in DC of all places and that she and Steve were at the hospital. I hadn’t been able to get there fast enough.

That’s what was stopping me from going back to be with her now. I needed a break from everything and I had a feeling my Angel did too. I was going to give it to her even if I had to kidnap her away from the entire damn world to do it.

I made my way to the cockpit and knocked on the door. “Happy?”

“Yeah, boss?” The door opened and Happy poked his head out. “Change of course. Let’s go to the house.”

Happy eyed me. “You sure about that, boss? Pepper’s already wondering how long you’re going to be gone this time.”

I shook my head. “Pepper’s never needed me before. She’ll be fine. Besides, I have more important commitments now.”

Happy glanced over my shoulder with a knowing look on his face. “Boss . . .” His tone was too serious for my liking. “Is she going to be okay?”

I let out a long sigh. “I don’t know, Hap. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure she is though. She’s my entire world.”

Happy nodded thoughtfully before he reached out and slapped a hand on my shoulder. “You could have done worse, boss.”

“Much, much worse.” I agreed. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew I didn’t deserve her, but damn if I wasn’t going to do everything in my power to keep her.

Happy nodded and gestured at the controls and the pilot over his shoulder. “I’ve got this. Go watch your girl. She seems to find trouble the most when you’re not around.”

I grinned. “You make it seem like that’s a strange thing.”

Happy shook his head. “With you? You’d expect it to be the opposite.”

I climbed into bed beside my angel and pulled her to my chest. It wasn’t until she was in my arms and I could feel the steady thrum of her heartbeat that I finally let myself relax. I breathed out a long sigh as I cuddled against her. Before I knew it, she had lulled me into the first full sleep I’d had in weeks.

Your POV---------------------

“Honey.” Tony’s voice was calling me. I groaned. Tony chuckled. I felt his fingers brushing lightly against the skin on my face. “Come on, Honey. I’ve got a surprise for you.”

I groaned again before I forced my eyes open. Tony’s face swam into view and then it wasn’t so hard to truly smile. “Hi.” 

He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Hi.” He echoed.

He pulled away and I glanced around. I was sitting in a car. Tony had the passenger door opened and was leaning over me. “Where are we?” I asked, sitting up as I rubbed at my eyes.

Tony stepped back so I could glance around. He gestured at the house in front of me with a grand smile. “Welcome back home, Angel.”

I slowly climbed out of the car, my jaw dropping wide. I recognized the house. Of course I did. I hadn’t seen it in months. Not since I’d technically died and it had been blown up.

“Tony?” I asked.

He reached for my hand and kissed my knuckles. “I don’t want you to get too excited. It’s not quite done yet. There was . . .” He blew out a breath. “There was a  _ lot _ of damage to the underground structures. They had to fix most of that first, but the master bedroom is done and I called ahead to get it furnished. I thought . . .” He suddenly seemed a little nervous. It was such a strange change to how I normally saw him, I could only stare at him in shock. “. . . well, I thought you might like to have a say in how the rest of the house was finished. It is  _ your _ house after all. But if you don’t want to . . .” 

I squeezed his hand. “Tony. I love it.” 

His eyes shined as he glanced at me. “Yeah?”

I nodded quickly, biting my lip against my grin. “Can I see it?”

Tony grinned, quickly back to his usual confident self. He gestured with his head and pulled me after him. “Let’s go.”

We raced towards the front door and I smiled as it opened automatically. “Welcome home, sir, ma’am.” JARVIS’ familiar voice sent a pang of warmth through me. 

“Hi, JARVIS.” I smiled.

“I’m glad to see you are alright, Angel.” JARVIS said.

“Thanks, J.” 

Tony shook his head. “Come on, I want to show you the master.”

The house was in various stages of construction as we raced through it, but the familiar layout brought a smile to my face that I couldn’t quite shake. This had been my first happy place after Tony had found me. The devastation I’d felt when I’d heard it had been destroyed . . . But it was okay now. Tony had fixed it, just like he did everything in his life.

Tony stopped in front of a set of double doors and glanced back at me with a mischievous look on his face. “Ready?” He asked. I nodded. Tony flung the doors open and gestured inside. My jaw dropped for the second time in twenty minutes as I took in the huge room. Out of everything I’d seen so far, the bedroom was the most changed. The ceiling was easily twice as high. The floor to ceiling windows showed an unobstructed view of the ocean. Tony caught my gaze and walked over and touched a finger to one of the panes. The room was suddenly filled with the sounds of the waves outside. “I upgraded the windows.” He said softly. “They can capture and translate the sound waves from outside. I know how much you like listening to the ocean.”

I nodded hard. My cheeks were starting to hurt, I was grinning so largely. I gestured at the bed. “Did you upgrade this too?”

Tony grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “I don’t know, how about you find out?” He wrapped his hands around my waist and walked me backwards until the back of my knees hit the bed and I collapsed against it, Tony falling down on top of me.

“Find out together?”

Tony swooped in and kissed me silly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need someone to kidnap me onto vacation. I'll never leave my house otherwise.
> 
> Thoughts? Prophecies? Comments? We're still on track for ULTRON soon. THAT'll be "fun". XD


	35. Happy Days and Dire Warnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

My eyes fluttered open and I smiled as the view from the new bedroom came into sight. I threw a hand out, looking for Tony but wasn’t surprised when my hand met empty sheets. They were cold too. He’d been gone awhile.

I sat up and stretched as the room came to life around me. JARVIS opened the shades and I turned and watched the water for a moment with a smile on my face for how thoughtful Tony was, before I turned to look for my robe. “Good morning, JARVIS. Is he in the lab?” I asked.

“Good morning, Angel and no. Unfortunately the lab has not yet cleared the construction phase. For the time being, he can’t keep himself awake there.”

I chuckled. “Not that it will stop him.” I noted.

JARVIS hummed frustratedly. “He’s in the kitchen. I believe he’s attempting to make breakfast.”

My smile grew as I padded down the hallway looking for him.

The sound of music reached my ears long before I got there. I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing out loud as I heard Tony singing along.

_ “In the arms of the angel, fly away from here. From this dark, cold, hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear. You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie. You’re in the arms of the angel. May you find some comfort here.” _

I leaned against the doorway and watched as Tony, clad only in his boxers and an apron, threw his head back and belted out the lyrics. It was so unlike his usual rock music that I almost didn’t recognize him, but the passion with which he sang nearly brought tears to my eyes. I knew exactly who he was thinking of and I’d never felt so loved.

As the song came to an end, I stepped further into the kitchen. “‘Angel’ still isn’t accurate.” I sassed, unable to help myself. Tony started and spun around. He brandished the spatula in his hand at me as though it were a weapon.

“You don’t sneak up on a man like that, Honey. What if I’d been armed?” 

I chuckled and kissed him quickly before I reached around him to get myself a cup of coffee. “I guess I’d just have to raise myself from the dead.” I winked.

Tony rolled his eyes and turned back to the stove where he was most certainly making . . . something. I had to stifle another laugh. Looked like we would be ordering out for breakfast.

“And you say you’re not an angel.” He grumbled.

“I’m not.” I sing-songed. 

Tony shook his head and glanced down at whatever it was he was attempting to cook. He grimaced before he reached over and turned off the stove. “JARVIS, can we get some breakfast?” He turned to me. “What do you want?”

“The usual is fine.”

“You heard the lady, J.”

“Right away sir.”

Tony wrapped an arm around my waist and took the mug out of my hands. He set it gently on the counter before he wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled me closer, nuzzling into my neck. “What are your plans for today, Honey?” He asked.

I ran my fingers through his hair as I stared out the living room windows. “You didn’t plan anything for us, huh?” I teased. “Funny, I thought when one was forced on vacation, the forcer would have activities already planned for the forcee.” 

Tony chuckled and his hands strayed lower. “I can think of a few things we can do.”

I gasped when his hands landed on my ass and I pulled away with a grin. “I think we did enough of  _ that _ last night.”

“Enough to tire us both out.” Tony agreed with a smouldering grin. “Round two?”

“More like round fifty.” I exaggerated under my breath while reaching for my coffee again.

Tony chuckled and moved away from me to get his own coffee. “Alright. Alright. After breakfast I’ll show you the plans and you can help me finish them. I have a few ideas for the lab I want to run past you. I don’t know how much time we’ll be able to spend here. The Avengers are based in New York and now that SHIELD is gone . . .”

I shook my head. “It’s okay, Tony, I love it here, or there. I’d love it anywhere as long as I was with you.”

Tony smiled at me. A soft one that he rarely used. It was such an unguarded smile, it took my breath away and reminded me that deep down, under all the polish and confidence, Anthony Edward Stark was a lot like me. We were both alone in this world until we’d found each other and since then, we’d built a bond that couldn’t be broken by mortal means. It made my soul sing and based on the way he reached up to feel his chest, he knew it.

“I feel the same way about you, Honey, but that’s not what I mean. I was serious yesterday when I told you I don’t want you fighting this by yourself anymore.” His smile turned serious as he reached across the table and took one of my hands in his. “I’ve come too close to losing you too many times. I don’t think you understand what it does to me every time I find you somewhere new, unconscious and vulnerable because those damned ghosts have ordered you to save someone else.”

I squeezed his hand and tried to gather my thoughts. I knew what he was saying but, “I’m sorry it hurts you Tony. I wish it was different, but . . . I can’t regret that I can do this, Tony. I can’t. If I didn’t have these powers, you . . . Steve . . . the kid from Queens and handfuls of others . . . they wouldn’t be here. It . . . it’s not fair. But if I can make that kind of difference, who am I to turn it down?”

Tony nodded and squeezed my hands. “I know, Honey. I know.” A sense of hopelessness washed over the two of us, completely erasing the easy-going mood from earlier. That was the hardest part, wasn’t it? We were stuck between a rock and a hard place and there was no easy way out.

??? “Hoss” ??? POV---------------------------

I watched the light completely drain from her eyes and I grit my teeth. I fought the urge to go to her and comfort her, not that I would have been able to anyway. My feet were all but glued to the shadows, keeping me away. I wasn’t meant to approach her yet.

I crossed my arms over my chest and waited not-so-patiently for my next instructions. Not for the first time I thought about fighting against the tides of control. Being damned for eternity had to be better than  _ this.  _ But just as quickly as the thought crossed my mind, a flash of  _ knowing _ passed my vision. I saw what would happen to  _ her _ if I chained myself to the devil. I couldn’t do that to her. Her soul wouldn’t survive it. 

Then again, it still might not.

Distantly, a tinkering bell sounded somewhere in the distance that only I could hear and I watched as Angelique excused herself from the kitchen to go get dressed. Soundlessly, I followed her back down the hallway and into the bedroom. The second the door was shut behind her, I forced myself to appear. She glanced at me and somehow, the life seemed to drain out of her even further. Her shoulders slumped as though the weight of the world were pressing down on her and I grit my teeth in a soundless snarl.

_ “What do you want, Hoss?” _

I wanted to hear her call me by my name. I wanted her to know that I was doing my best to protect her. I wanted the powers that be to go straight to hell, but even as I opened my mouth, the words wouldn’t come out. Instead, I said; “There are things coming beyond your understanding. Things that tie to the bigger picture that you must allow to happen. You won’t be able to save him. He must go so others can be saved. Sacrifice the one for the many.”

Blood was pouring down her face and my hands clenched at the sight. A pang of fear shot through me as it always did now. She’d been touched by the other side and it’s cancerous touch was leeching away at her slowly but surely. She didn’t understand just how much danger she was in and damn it all to hell, I couldn’t tell her.

_ “Why can’t you just tell me what it is you want me to do? Why do you have to be so damn cryptic all the time? I know it’s not your fault. You’re just following orders, but DAMMIT, Hoss. Tell your bosses I’d do better if I had more to work with!” _

I grit my teeth as I fought against the forces that were keeping my mouth shut. My eyes narrowed as I tried to communicate through them what was happening. She was always going to be my priority, but I couldn’t do a damned thing to warn her. If she knew too much, she’d try to stop it and she’d die in the process. The world still needed her.  _ He _ still needed her.

“You’ll know when the time is right and not before. Just . . . be prepared. The darkest days are yet ahead.”

I vanished from her sight as I stepped back into the shadows, cursing my very existence for the millionth time. Then I closed my eyes and disappeared from the house entirely. ULTRON was coming next. The least I could do was give her time with her lover without the threat of my presence hanging around because at the end of the day, I knew better than even the powers that be it would seem. She may have been warned not to save Pietro Maximoff’s life, but she wasn’t going to listen. I’d be seeing her again all too soon, and the afterlife was only going to start tightening its grip on her. Not even the powers that be would be able to save her then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, well, well, well, well. Hoss is a little more rebellious than Angel realizes. I wasn't planning on ever doing a POV for him, but it sorta kinda wrote itself and I LOVED it. So, hopefully I'll be able to include more soon.
> 
> Anyway, thoughts? Prophecies? Suggestions? We're amping up towards ULTRON (as you can tell) and eventually endgame. Hope you're ready. XD


	36. The Story Continues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your POV

I stood on the balcony that overlooked the ocean, my mind a thousand miles away as I leaned against the railing. It had been weeks since Tony had kidnapped me for my much needed vacation. It had also been weeks since I’d last seen Hoss or any ghost for that matter. I had a sinking suspicion that he was keeping the others away. If he was, it felt like he was doing it as a final gift of some sort. 

I sighed. 

I supposed I should be grateful. Funny how I couldn’t quite manage it.

The door behind me slid open and I smiled a few seconds later when Tony’s arms wrapped around my waist from behind, pulling me up against his chest. He kissed the top of my head. “What are you thinking about?” He asked.

I shook my head slightly. “Nothing.”

Tony shook his own head. “You keep trying that.” He mused. “It doesn’t work, you know.”

“What doesn’t?”

Tony spun me in his arms until my back was pressed against the railing. He smirked down at me and took one of my hands in his, pressing it against his arc reactor. “I have a little piece of you, remember? You can’t fool me honey, the part of you in me _squirms_ when you lie.”

I pulled my hand away so I could bury my face in it. “Do you have to say it like that? It sounds so dirty when you say it.”

Tony chuckled. “We have time to make it a little dirty, if you’d like.”

I rolled my eyes. “We’re already twenty minutes late.”

“It’s a _private_ jet, Honey. It leaves whenever I say so.”

I glanced at him and smiled. “We should still leave. They’ll be expecting us.”

A tiny frown curled the corners of Tony’s lips. I reached up and ran a finger along the seam. “What’s wrong?”

Tony sighed and captured my hands back in his again. “I don’t want to go back.” He admitted.

“Why not? I thought you’d been missing your lab.”

Tony sighed again and glanced past me at the breathtaking view. “I have but . . .” He trailed off for a minute and I took the opportunity to move behind him and wrap my arms around his waist the way he’d held me only a few moments earlier. I glanced around his side at the ocean, letting the waves soothe the part of me that didn’t want to go back to the tower either. “I can’t shake this feeling that something bad is coming for us. That if we stayed here, we’d stay out of it.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and nodded. I knew exactly what he meant and I wished, more than anything, that we _could_ stay here, but I wasn’t the only one who wanted a piece of Tony. He had responsibilities in New York and he’d already put them off longer than he could.

“We could always stay put.” I offered, knowing that we both knew we couldn’t.

Tony shook his head. “I wish we could, Honey. I’d happily lock you up and keep you to myself forever and ever but . . .”

“But . . .”

“But Fury. SHIELD might have fallen but that grumbly old bastard must have spliced some cockroach DNA into himself. He’s still out there and now that Romanov knows about you . . .” Tony groaned. “It’s only a matter of time before he shows up at the front door wanting something from you, Honey, and he’s not exactly a ‘take no for an answer’ kind of guy. If I’m going to have to fight to keep you out of this life, I’d rather do it in New York where Capsicle will have your back too.”

I chuckled. “Steve? Steve Rogers? Our Steve? ‘Stickler’ Steve?” 

Tony laughed. “‘Stickler’ Steve? Oh, Honey, you really are my soulmate, aren’t you?” 

I grinned and reached up to grope his chest. “You better believe it.”

Tony captured my hand and drew it up to press a kiss to my knuckles. “Well, like it or not, Cap’ likes you. If I were still a gambling man, I’d put money on him stepping up to keep you safe. Especially from Fury. Last time I talked to Spangles, he and Fury didn’t exactly see eye to eyepatch. Frankly, Romanov might not be on his side anymore either. She didn’t look too happy during her hearing at Capitol Hill.”

I nodded thoughtfully. “Steve told me that she’d burned all of her identities trying to take Pierce down. She has a lot of people after her now.”

“Maybe she’ll be too busy to go after you.”

There was something in his tone that made me freeze. I unwrapped myself and moved around to Tony’s side so I could see his face. There was a shadow there that hadn’t been there the past few weeks while we’d been hidden here in Malibu. I didn’t like that it was suddenly back.

I reached up and cupped Tony’s face, forcing him to look at him. “Hey, hey now. Nat won’t hurt me.”

“You can’t know that.”

I smiled sadly. “I can, Tony. I can, though.”

He cracked a grin at that. “Oh, excuse me Honey. I didn’t realize psychic powers were a part of your special little snowflake package.”

I scoffed. “That was your mistake. I’m the _whole_ package.”

Tony drew me in for a kiss. “Yes, you are.”

For a long minute, we lost ourselves in each other, trying to cling to the present as though we both knew we were running out of time. 

Eventually, life caught back up with us.

“Excuse me sir, Angel. Captain Rogers called, requesting an update when you’re in the air.”

Tony sighed and pulled away, leaning his forehead against mine. “We could stay.”

It felt like a lie.

I smiled sadly. “We can always come back.”

That didn’t feel much better.

Tony pulled away. “Let’s go. I think Steve’s been left unsupervised in the tower. If we take too much longer, the whole place is likely to burn down before we get back.”

“He’s not that bad.”

Tony quirked an eyebrow. “JARVIS?”

“I have to agree with Angel.” He said.

I smirked.

“Captain Rogers has only lit three fires and all were almost immediately extinguished.”

My smile fell flat.

Tony grinned smugly. “Maybe I should become a gambling man again. Maybe I could win back some of that fortune you stole.”

“Stole? I earned that fortune.” I grinned as Tony pulled me back inside and towards the car waiting out front. “I sold my soul to the devil.”

“Mmm. I’m the devil in this situation?” He asked.

I nodded. 

Tony smirked and pulled his sunglasses on. “Well I am tempting.”

I threw my head back and laughed. “Devilishly so.” I agreed.

The flight home was quiet but a tension permeated it, growing stronger the closer we got to New York. By the time we finally started landing, I was nearly bursting with it. Tony’s phone had been constantly dinging the second he turned it on. A permanent frown was on his face. He glanced up at me. “Hill’s been busy since Pep hired her. She’s got intel on a few remaining HYDRA bases.”

I nodded. “You have to deal with that.”

Tony shook his head. “Honey . . .”

I cut him off, settling my hand on his knee. “We came back for a reason, Tony. You’re still a hero. The world needs you.”

“You’re my world.” Tony was quick to respond.

I smiled softly, a burning warmth spreading through me at his words. How often had I begged the universe for someone to love me even a fraction of the way that this man loved me now? All the hell I’d been through in my life; all of it was worth it for this.

“I’ll be safe. I’ll be here.”

Tony watched me for a long minute. “Promise you won’t leave. Promise you’ll be here when I get back.”

I nodded. “Of course. In fact . . . JARVIS?”

“What can I do for you, Angel?”

“If I try to leave the tower without an explanation, have security detain me and call Tony.”

Tony nodded his head. “That works for now. I’ll work on something more permanent when I get back. I don’t trust the dead bastards not to figure out a way around that if they wanted to.”

I nodded. He was right. I doubted it would stop Hoss or any of his little friends if they were determined, but it was the best I could do right now and it was meant to give Tony peace of mind more than anything else. I would be fine.

The jet came to a landing on top of the building and Tony took my hand as the door opened and we walked off. I smiled as Steve came into view, standing at the base of the ramp, his posse of guardians fanned out around him as always, with big smiles on their faces. “Welcome home.” Steve said.

Tony grumbled something under his breath and looked Steve up and down. Steve was already in uniform. “Let me grab a few things and we can head out.” He said to Steve. He kissed me on the top of my head before he wandered away, giving me a pointed look I couldn’t quite interpret as he headed for the lab.

Steve turned to me as soon as Tony was gone. He had a smile on his face. “We missed you, you know.” He said.

I laughed. “You and Nat? I thought she wasn’t around.”

“Fine. You got me. _I_ missed you. Happy?” Steve teased.

“Always.” I grinned.

Steve chuckled for a second before his expression turned serious. “Listen . . . I’ve been working on something.” Steve started fidgeting and I glanced over his shoulder at his guardians. They nodded at me encouragingly. I turned back to Steve and reached for his fidgeting hands.

“Do you need help?” I asked.

Steve ran a hand through his hair. “It’s just . . . I’ve been following some leads on Bucky . . .”

I nodded slowly. “That’s . . . good.” The memory of Bucky’s face when I’d gone to Washington to save Steve flashed through my head. It wasn’t the face of a man who wanted to be saved. “But . . .” 

“But?” Steve encouraged.

It was my turn to fidget then. “What if . . . what if he doesn’t want to be found, Steve?”

Steve shook his head. “I can’t just leave him, Angel. He’s . . .” He let out a long breath and it hit me like lightening. In fact, it was so obvious, I wasn’t sure why I’d never noticed it before.

“You love him.” I breathed.

Steve nodded. “Of course I do . . .”

I shook my head, cutting him off. “No, Steve.” I said gently. “You’re _in_ love with him.”

Steve stood frozen for a long moment. He had a deer-in-the-headlights like expression on his face. 

“Are you going to tell anyone?” He asked.

I blinked at him, not expecting that kind of question. 

I shook my head slowly. “I don’t have to. Why don’t you want anyone to know? Tony wouldn’t . . .”

“Especially not Tony.” 

“Steve . . .”

“Angel. Just . . .”

I reached out and grabbed his face. “Steve Rogers. I think you forget sometimes what time period you live in now. Tony. Won’t. Care. Actually, he might like you _better_ if he knew. He has this idea in his head that you’re in love with me.” I chuckled.

Steve shook his head, his eyes wide again for another reason.

I nodded. “No one’s going to care. And the ones who do? They don’t matter. I’ll help you find your long lost love, Steve. And I won’t tell anyone unless you’re ready for them to know. Okay?”

Steve let out a long breath but nodded. “Thank you, Angel.” He said, stepping away. 

I smiled up at him just as Tony came around the corner, fully geared up. He shot me an undecipherable look before he slapped a hand on Steve’s shoulder harder than necessary. “Ready?” He asked.

Steve nodded.

“Be safe.” I said, leaning up to kiss Tony. 

Tony nodded. “You too, Honey. Remember your promise.”

I nodded and watched as the two headed back onto the jet and took off into the sky. Then I headed inside to look for a good book and enough coffee to get me through the long wait until Tony got home. 

I already missed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jealousy is NOT a good look on you, Tony. XD


End file.
